A man charged with harassment for videotaping and following dog owners who didn't leash their pets or pick up their pets' feces is free to keep his video camera running.

CLEANING UP

See Murphy's Patrol Videotape

A jury Wednesday acquitted Patrick Murphy (pictured, left), 50, of charges filed against him after he videotaped three unleashed dogs on May 10. One dog was relieving itself on a public baseball field. "For this town," said juror Andrew McKinley, "this kind of case wasn't that surprising." The tapes resulted in two citations for the dog owners and an arrest for Murphy, who had been warned by police that following his subjects would constitute harassment. Jurors decided that Murphy did follow one woman to her workplace, but only so animal-control officers could find her to issue a $30 ticket. "In the state of Colorado, it is not a crime to want the law enforced," said Murphy's lawyer, Joel Judd. Murphy, a plant ecologist who grew tired of seeing animal feces on native plants, has been writing to newspapers and City Council members to warn of the environmental damage caused by roaming dogs since 1996. He also has a chart, created with a global positioning device, of 661 piles of dog poop he saw at Casey Middle School on a single day in March. He testified Wednesday that he videotapes dog owners because animal-control officers cannot respond in time to issue the fines. Officer Ben Rickard testified that he has taken 100 calls from Murphy. Five of his calls resulted in tickets being issued to dog owners. Jurors watched the tapes, in which Murphy is heard asking the owners to leash their pets. Jurors said that they were convinced Murphy only wanted the law followed.

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