The CEO of a luxury charter-jet company got a stunning break this week when prosecutors dropped animal-abuse charges against him despite sickening video showing him viciously beating his St. Bernard puppy.
The video clearly shows high-flying exec Daniel Padilla, 38, in the elevator of his swanky Hell’s Kitchen high-rise home mercilessly punching and kicking the defenseless 8-month-old pup named Boston on Oct. 20, 2012, cops said.
“I observed the defendant on video repeatedly kicking a large-breed dog with his foot, striking the dog on its head and the right side of its body,” a detective stated in court papers.
A staffer in the high-rise where Padilla lives reviewed the video, saw the cowardly beating and called the police.
Cops showed up and took the poor St. Bernard — gentle giants originally bred as rescue dogs in the Alps — to the ASPCA, where a veterinarian confirmed that Boston had suffered painful injuries from the cruel beatdown.
Dr. Bonnie Wong, who examined the abused dog, told cops the poor pup would wince when she tried to touch the tender right side of his torso.
Padilla confessed to the beating on Oct. 25, according to court papers.
“That’s me on the video and that’s my dog,” he told a detective, the papers said.
The young St. Bernard — a huge but affectionate and loyal breed known for its rescue abilities — had apparently sparked Padilla’s violent rage by playfully romping away from his master.
“I kicked the dog because I was upset that I had to chase the dog down,” Padilla told cops, according to the court papers.
Padilla had just picked the pup up from doggy day care and didn’t have a leash, he said. Boston ran ahead of him — and when he gave chase he tripped and broke his wrist, so he took out his fury on the St. Bernard, according to court papers.
The Manhattan DA’s Office declined to comment on why the charges were dismissed even though the attack was caught on video.
The Greystone Aviation Services CEO brags about the dog on his company’s Web site. “In his spare time he resides in New York with his faithful companion, Boston, a St. Bernard who also enjoys flying,” states a blurb below a picture of Padilla standing next to a helicopter.
Padilla also boasts on the site that he is an avid sailor and ex-pro skier.
But in a strange twist, Padilla, who lives in a penthouse apartment near Times Square, told the court he was unemployed so he could score a legal-aid attorney paid for by the state. The Legal Aid Society lawyer, Adam Meyer, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.