Judge sets bond for anniston restaurant owner with restrictions

David Mogil

A judge on Wednesday set the conditions for a release on bond for an Anniston restaurant owner, jailed since November in connection with a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals.

David Mogil, owner of Damn Yankees restaurants in Anniston and Heflin, is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals. Prosecutors allege Mogil beat his girlfriend’s dog, Coco, with a hose, and that the dog later fell or jumped from a second-story patio at his home atop the Damn Yankees building on Noble Street in Anniston.

Chambers County Circuit Judge Steven Perryman, in his order Wednesday, states that there is insufficient evidence that the dog had been beaten with a hose, and that neither the officer who responded nor a veterinarian who treated the dog told the court they saw injuries consistent with torture.

Perryman wrote that “the court must be convinced that probable cause exists that a new offense has been committed.” Perryman’s ruling states that he finds no such probable cause to hold Mogil without bond.

Additionally, Perryman writes that no one witnessed Mogil “actually strike the dog with the hose,” Mogil did not push or throw the dog off the balcony and there was no physical evidence on the hose that it had been used to beat the dog.

Perryman’s ruling comes with stipulations, however. Mogil must complete anger management counseling and be confined to his home and work-related locations.

Mogil’s bond was set at $7,500 on the aggravated cruelty to animal charge. Bond on Mogil’s 2013 second-degree assault charge was set at $10,000.