It’s not every trial where prospective jurors are asked, “Are you a vegan?” and “Have you ever been attacked by a cat?”
But the Manhattan felony animal-cruelty trial of dashing, blue-eyed actor Joseph Petcka – charged with vengefully bludgeoning to death his ex-girlfriend’s cat – is no ordinary trial.
PEYSER: Slay Case Pawsitively Loony Waste Of Money
Opening statements are slated for today in the bizarre case, in which Petcka, a burly former Mets farm-team relief pitcher, is insisting he killed the diminutive orange tabby, Norman, in self-defense.
Petcka, 37, weighs 205 pounds, and is so brawny he once played the “Brawny Guy” on the paper-towel commercials. Norman at death weighed a mere 7½ pounds and appears in photos to be primarily comprised of hair.
Still, the table-waiting actor insists he was justified in kicking the little cat to get it off him after Norman chomped down on his right hand. Norman, he says, was just a mean, nasty cat.
And state law allows one to commit an act of violence against an animal, argues defense lawyer Charles Hochbaum – providing the critter has it coming.
“The cat had always hissed and growled at me as I was being nice to him,” Petcka told ASPCA cops when he was arrested in April 2007. “I don’t know why he attacked me, as I always wanted to keep my distance from him.”
But today’s star witness, Norman’s bereaved owner, Lisa Altobelli, will tell a markedly different version of Petcka’s “nice guy conquers savage beast” story.
Altobelli, a Sports Illustrated reporter, told ASPCA cops that Petcka was drunk and getting drunker that night in March 2007 in her Greenwich Street apartment. She went to bed to avoid him – and as she fell asleep could hear him calling “Norman . . . Norman!” in a singsong voice, she told cops.
She woke up, she told cops, to find Petcka jamming his knee into her back and screaming, “Your cat bit me! What are you going to do about it?” and “You love that cat more than you love me!” Altobelli took her keys and fled. When she returned the next morning, Norman was dead under her bedroom nightstand.
Some prospective jurors visibly cringed yesterday morning when told they might be selected for a fatal-cat-beating case. But after six hours of prosecutors seeking to remove the cat-haters and defense attempts to winnow out any fur-coat-hating-strictly-vegan-critter-huggers – many appeared unimpressed.
“I feel a little bit like this is frivolous to a certain extent,” admitted a Lower East Side architect who was then quickly rejected by the prosecution. Still, Petcka has some cause for concern: the jury foreman copped to having a dog – and two cats.