PLEA BARGAIN BID DENIED IN CANINE COCAINE CASE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Citing a defendant's prior record, a judge rejected a plea bargain Thursday for a defendant accused of letting her 8-month-old Australian shepherd ingest rock cocaine, which led to it being euthanized.

Cindy Green, 44, had pleaded no contest to one count of cocaine possession after prosecutors agreed to drop an animal cruelty charge. She was scheduled to be sentenced to up to a year in county jail and five years probation.

But Lancaster Superior Court Michael Luros rejected the agreement, citing Green's prior felony convictions for burglary and a drug charge. He returned the case to Municipal Court, where Green is scheduled to be re-arraigned Monday on the original charges.

Deputy Public Defender Manuel Martinez said that neither he nor Deputy District Attorney Kelly Cromer were aware of Green's record.

``One of them was not on the rap sheet. The other appeared to be a very old case because of the position in rap sheet,'' Martinez said. ``If it's an old enough prior conviction, it's not treated as seriously as if it was a more recent one.''

The dog was destroyed at a Lancaster veterinary hospital in December after eating a gram of cocaine off a bedroom table, where Green had left the drug during a Christmas Eve party, sheriff's deputies said. The dog went into convulsions, began spitting up blood and developed a fever of 108 degrees.

Green took the dog to the vet, but the pet developed congestive heart and pulmonary failure and had to be euthanized, deputies said.

When Green was arrested Feb. 26, deputies said they found heroin and rock cocaine at her house in the 37800 block of Rose Marie Street.