Pit bull pusher Steffen Baldwin gets 15.5 years on 32 felony counts

Charged in 2020,  former Best Friends Animal Society & Maddies Fund star Steffen Baldwin delayed trial until January 2025

MARYSVILLE,  Ohio––Steffen Baldwin,  44,  alias Steffen Finkelstein,  former executive director of Top of Ohio Pet Shelter in Logan County and the Union County Humane Society,  also  in Ohio,  and co-founder of the Underdog Alliance in California,  was on March 13,  2025 sentenced by Judge Daniel T. Hogan to serve 15 years and six months in state prison.

Hogan further barred Baldwin for life from keeping animals in the state of Ohio.

In addition,  Baldwin is to serve five years on probation after serving his prison time.  During his time on probation,  Baldwin is to be subject to random drug screening,  to be ineligible to leave Ohio,  and to be ineligible to own a firearm.

58 witnesses & 303 exhibits

“Baldwin,”  claiming current residence in St. Augustine, Florida,  “stood trial on January 8, 2024,  accused of 39 total felony counts,”  reported Kyle Meddles for the Marysville Journal Tribune.

“The bench trial lasted for three weeks,”  Meddles said,  “where it saw 58 witnesses testify and 303 exhibits admitted.”

Elaborated the Bellefontaine Examiner,  “Throughout the trial,  the prosecution painted Baldwin as a manipulative figure who misled supporters into believing he was rescuing and rehabilitating dogs.

“Instead, prosecutors said, he euthanized at least eight dogs to make space for others he was paid to train.  They also alleged that Baldwin continued to raise money for dogs who had already been put down,  exploiting the trust of donors and pet owners.

“Aggressive dogs left unrehabilitated”

“Witnesses testified about incidents of aggressive dogs being left unrehabilitated, fatal dog fights,  and Baldwin’s alleged purchase of a firearm to shoot one of the dogs in his care.

“The case was further complicated,”   the Bellefontaine Examiner said,  “by delays due to changes in Baldwin’s legal representation,  health concerns,  and alleged bond violations.”

Despite all that,  recounted Meddles,  “Baldwin was convicted of 32 felony charges including one count of bribery,  12 counts of telecommunications fraud,  four counts of tampering with records,  11 counts of cruelty to animals,  one count of grand theft of a firearm,  two counts of grand theft,  and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

“Save Them Dogs Training”

“According to court documents, “  Meddles continued,  “of Baldwin’s 11 guilty counts of cruelty to animals,  seven counts are labeled as dogs Baldwin ‘needlessly killed.’”

The sentences for 17 of the 32 guilty counts are be served consecutively,  with the rest to be served concurrently,  Meddles said.

“Baldwin’s convictions stem from his time running his own dog rescue business called Save Them Dogs Training,”  Meddles stipulated.

But Baldwin had credibility issues long before having become involved in nonprofit work and dog rehabilitation.

From “West Point” to YMCA

Baldwin claimed on LinkedIn,  for instance,  to have attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1999 to 2001,  earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

The dates of when Baldwin said he attended West Point conflict,  however,  with those of his active duty stint in the U.S. Army,  from July 1998 to December 2001.

After discharge,  according to the LinkedIn entry,  Baldwin held a series of YMCA jobs from June 2002 through August 2005,  became development manager for a drug treatment facility,  and then was executive director for the Victor Valley Community Hospital Foundation,  identified by the web site Scorched Earth as “a community hospital [in southern California] that went bankrupt in 2010.”

Union County Humane Society

Baldwin by then had relocated to Ohio,  unsuccessfully running a tattoo shop before becoming executive director of the Union County Humane Society in August 2008.

Rising rapidly to prominence as a pit bull trainer and advocate,  Baldwin was often featured at public events,  in publications,  and on the web sites of pro-pit bull organizations,  including the Best Friends Animal Society,  Los Angeles Animal Services,  and Maddie’s Fund.

But Baldwin was riding more than one wild horse at once.

The Nicaraguan connection

While still at the Union County Humane Society,  Baldwin in 2011,  as “Director and Fund Raising/Grant Writer,”  joined attorney Matthew L. Smith in forming the “Nicaraguan International Coalition for Children & the Elderly,”  headquartered in Marysville,  Ohio.

The “Nicaraguan International Coalition for Children & the Elderly” apparently never filed IRS Form 990,  according to www.Guidestar.org,  the organization that posts IRS Form 990 filings for the Internal Revenue Service.

Eventually The “Nicaraguan International Coalition for Children & the Elderly” lost IRS nonprofit status.  Yet it was still raising funds through Facebook postings as recently as December 19,  2020.

Top of Ohio Pet Shelter

Leaving the Union County Humane Society in 2013,  Baldwin with considerable fanfare formed the Animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio.  That organization fizzled and was stripped of IRS 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit status in 2017 after three consecutive years of not filing annual financial reports.

Meanwhile Baldwin became acting executive director of the Top of Ohio Pet Shelter.

Posted Erica Tyler,  moderator of the Logan County Silent Majority page on Facebook,  after Baldwin was sentenced,  “In late 2014 I started work at Top of Ohio Pet Shelter as a kennel tech,  not long after Steffen Baldwin took over.  At one point the board starting making Steffen punch the time clock like the rest of the hourly employees,  because he was lying about how many hours he was working.

“In addition,”  Tyler recalled,  “countless times he told me he would come help me clean kennels.  I was our only kennel tech at the time.  He was late or he would never show up. When he did [show up],  he spent the entire time on the phone.

“During his time as our executive director,”  Tyler said,  “he made many promises he could not keep.  All the while he was taking innocent lives right under our noses.  Scumbags like him are the reason we no longer have an animal shelter in Logan County.”

“Ohioans Against Breed Discrimination”

Baldwin and an associate,  Jeffery Luke Westerman,  went on to co-found the political action committee “Ohioans Against Breed Discrimination” in 2015.

Westerman moved on in 2018 to become executive director of the Humane Society of El Paso,  Texas,  but left that position three days after television station KFOX 14 on January 3,  2019 reported his indictment by an Ohio grand jury on 19 felony counts of securities law violations and theft.

Summarized Estefania Seyffert of CBS-4 in El Paso,  “According to prosecutors, Westerman solicited at least 19 Ohioans to invest over $1.09-million into companies owned or controlled by him and used the money for personal expenses.

“Westerman faced three years of prison for each count of unlawful securities practices and 18 months for each count of grand theft.  All counts could have run consecutive to each other for a total of 19.5 years in prison.”

Westerman instead accepted a plea bargain in October 2021 that allows him to make restitution in minimum monthly payments.

Bosco

Baldwin during the same years continued to build his reputation as a purported expert trainer and handler of pit bulls despite having apparently been integrally involved in 2017 in the high-profile failed attempted rehabilitation of a pit bull named Bosco by then 61-year-old Best Friends Animal Society employee Jacqueline Bedsaul Johnson.

According to Johnson in an April 4,  2017 posting to Facebook,  Bosco “was found running at large in November [2016] and taken to Animal Control,”  apparently in Toledo,  Ohio.

“Lucas County Pit Crew pulled him,”  Johnson continued,   “and he went into a foster home.  He was adopted days before Christmas,”  but “bit his adopter,”  and was returned to a foster home after completing quarantine.

Dangerous dog driven from Ohio to Arizona

“Ohio declared him a dangerous dog because of the bite,”  Johnson admitted,  “so he was moved to an out of state foster home.  He was driven across the country to our home in Arizona.”

On December 4,  2017,  Bosco turned on Johnson.

“Both her arms were broken,  [her] wrist [was] shattered and [she] nearly lost a finger,”  which was reattached,  Johnson’s daughter Adria recounted in a GoFundMe appeal on her mother’s behalf.

            (See What pit bull advocates don’t learn from their own maulings.)

“Yard accident”

There was also a pit bull named Remi,  described in the indictments against Baldwin,  who was in May 2016 rehomed by the Trumbull County pound to Angelo and Litsa Kargakos,  of Hubbard,  Ohio,  despite having been legally identified as a “dangerous dog.”

After spending four months trying to rehabilitate Remi,  Angelo and Litsa Kargakos admitted in Facebook postings,  “We gave Steffen $1,000 to polish Remi up and find him his forever home.”

Instead,  Remi disappeared.  Baldwin in April 2017 claimed via Facebook that Remi had been euthanized after killing another pit bull,  named Zack,  in a “yard accident.”

Paperwork issued by the Rascal Animal Hospital,  of Dublin,  Ohio,  confirmed that Baldwin brought Remi for euthanasia on December 28,  2016.

Recurring pattern

This appears to have been a recurring pattern.

Union County prosecutor Dave Phillips testified that Baldwin “would raise money for [such] dogs – for their care,  for their adoption,  for their training – but allegedly euthanized them,”  demonstrating what Phillips called “a pattern of lying to people to raise money.

“The allegations,” Phillips said,  “indicate the money he raised for the animals,  even after they were euthanized,  were used for his personal expenses,”  including gifts for his girlfriend and entertainment at strip clubs.

Detective Jim Conroy of the Campbell Police Department in Mahoning County,  Ohio,  told Columbus 10TV reporter Brittany Bailey that the initial police report of alleged criminal activity by Baldwin was filed in June 2017.

“From there,”  summarized Bailey,  “the evidence kept building,  eventually leading to dozens of charges tied to the deaths of 18 dogs.”

Baldwin fled to California,  but his slime trail was catching up to him.

Three more attacks

Sharon Logan of Paw Protectors Rescue,  in Orange County, California,  on February 6,  2019 posted a list of three incidents allegedly involving Baldwin and pit bulls he trained,  distilled from information that Baldwin himself posted to social media.

In one of those incidents,  a trainer visiting Baldwin from England was allegedly mauled by a pit bull named Goober,  “had to be hospitalized for three days,  suffered a broken leg and needs extensive plastic surgery.”

Also,  Baldwin allegedly “rescued” a pit bull named Travis from Orange County Animal Services,  who had bitten two other dogs and two humans,  and was found dead three weeks later;  and a pit bull brought to Baldwin for training by a rescue in Long Beach,  California,  “lost his tail in a fight with another while in Steffen’s care.”

The slow road to justice

Initially arrested on July 23,  2020 in Acton,  California,  Baldwin was extradited to Ohio.

(See Pit bull advocate Steffen Baldwin could get 81 years for killing dogs & fraud.)

His trial was repeatedly delayed,  at first due to the COVID-19 pandemic,  later because he claimed to have been seriously injured in an October 2020 car crash.

Further,  Baldwin was on December 15,  2020 additionally charged with violating the terms of his $200,000 bail bond after allegedly testing positive for opiate use.

(See Pit bull advocate Steffen Baldwin, facing 39 felonies, flunks drug test.)

On February 9,  2022 Baldwin reportedly fired his attorney and asked to be represented by a public defender.

Why Judge Hogan threw the book at Baldwin

“According to Judge Hogan’s sentencing entry,”  summarized Kyle Meddles for the Marysville Journal Tribune,  “after considering all of the records,  documents, reports,  witness statements and more,  the court determined specific factors indicating that Baldwin’s conduct was ‘more serious’ than normal cases of the offenses” of which he was convicted.

Among these factors:

• Victims suffered serious physical, psychological or economic harm.
• Baldwin held a public office or position of trust in the community.
• Baldwin’s occupation obliged him to prevent the offense or bring others committing it to justice.
• Baldwin’s professional reputation was used to facilitate the offense or is likely to influence the future conduct of others.
• Baldwin’s relationship with the victims facilitated the offense.
• Baldwin committed the offenses for hire or as a part of an organized criminal activity.

Baldwin unsuccessfully asked Judge Hogan for a probationary sentence to allow him to “continue to care for” his five children and pursue rehabilitation to become “more employable in a new field outside of dog training and nonprofit administration.”

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