Brent Adams & Associates Legal Blog

Woman Arrested After Using Dogs As Weapons In Fight

A woman in South Salt Lake, Utah has been arrested after police say another woman suffered personal injuries in a fight with the woman, who used her pet pit bulls as weapons. According to Latoyia Portillo, the woman who suffered the animal wounds, the other woman threatened to order her dogs to attack, and then did so.

In the attack, Portillo suffered a scratch to the face, scrapes to the elbow, and a bite to hip.

On the night of June 23, Portillo was visiting the apartment where her mother and sisters live when a neighbor allowed her two pit bulls to roam free in the area where Portillo’s daughter and other children were playing.

Portillo said she requested that the woman put the dogs on a leash, which she refused. After the dogs attacked another dog owned by a neighbor, she repeated the request, which she says began an argument that escalated into a fight.

According to Portillo, the woman’s boyfriend then joined the fray, striking her on the elbow and side with a metal bed rail. Then the woman ordered the dogs to attack Portillo.

Portillo said that one dog went for her legs and the other bit her on the hip, but fortunately both let go.

Ashlei Rebolloso, the owner of the dogs, and Lawrence Rich, her boyfriend, were both arrested by police.

South Salt Lake Police Department spokesman Gary Keller said that Rebolloso “crossed the line” by ordering the dogs to attack. He says that he does not fault the dogs, even though they can be vicious. Portillo says that even though the dogs have shown aggressive tendencies toward her sister and other neighbors, she does not blame them for the attack either, rather she blames the owners.