RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — A Wake County man who operated a service dog business for children with special needs pleaded guilty to 50 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. This comes more than six years after the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office started investigating complaints.
Mark Mathis owned Ry-Co Service Dogs in Raleigh from 2008 to 2018 and claimed to sell specially trained service dogs to families with medical or developmental needs.
In court, many of those families were there for Friday’s hearing. They’ve been waiting years for this day as they filed complaints several years ago with the North Carolina Attorney General’s office.
Prosecutors said Ry-Con targeted families with special needs family members, often autistic children, who paid thousands of dollars for dogs that did not meet proper training, health, or care standards to be service animals. Victims paid between $4,500 and $16,710 for Briard breed dogs that Mathis said were trained to help people with disabilities. Mathis shut down his business in 2018.
Maggie and Paul Vladyka bought a dog from Mathis several years ago for their child, McKenna, and said they felt it was important to be in court today. Maggie adds, “That’s why I took her out of school early for her to be here. I really wanted the judge to see the community that he affected. I mean, my face is the face of the community somewhat, but it was her, it’s her dog, and she was the one who was really affected by this, and I wanted someone to see that.”
McKenna is 16, and they still have Sven, the dog they bought from Mathis, but said it took thousands of additional dollars in training, just like several other families experienced. “We all kind of banded together and really wanted to stop this from happening to anybody else,” Maggie said.
After Mathis pled guilty, the judge sentenced Mathis but suspended his sentence. Mathis got 60 months of supervised probation. He must pay a total of $353,000 in restitution to 50 families who purchased a service dog. In court, Mathis did apologize to the families. He said, “I hope that this brings some comfort. I know that it can’t erase all that you’ve gone through. I’m deeply sorry and deeply apologetic for all that happened, and I will make every effort to comply and do right by you through this work.”
Some of the victims said they weren’t happy Mathis avoided jail time, but they wanted some type of closure. Maggie added, “I think what we wanted more now than the money was the justice and for him to really understand how he took advantage of a community that already has enough problems and doesn’t have enough support, and that he’s a part o,f ironically and he used that against us and he weaponized the love we have for our children.”
As part of the plea deal, Mathis paid $100,000 of that restitution on Friday; that money will go directly to the 50 victims. Mathis is banned from training or selling service animals.
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