COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A dog’s previous history of hurting people can be used to charge the owner with a crime, even if the dog previously was not officially declared “dangerous,” the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

A court majority opinion written by Justice Melody J. Stewart found that state law provides “fair warning to a dog owner” that he or she may be subject to penalties if they fail to control their dog.

The case stems from a May 2016 incident in which a Cincinnati man, Joseph Jones, was walking his dog when he unleashed it to protect himself against an oncoming stray dog. Jones’ dog’s name was Prince Bane, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. A woman who lived at Jones’ apartment complex and her dog were bitten.

Jones tried to argue that the stray dog, and not Prince Bane, bit the woman, Alyssa Rushing, and her dog. But Jones was charged and convicted of a fourth-degree misdemeanor count of failure to control, defined as an owner unleashing a dangerous dog while in public.

As evidence that the dog was dangerous, Cincinnati city prosecutors used a Facebook comment from Jones responding to a woman complimenting Prince Bane’s good temperament. Jones said he trained the dog because he “use to try n smell or bite everybody.”

A municipal judge convicted Jones based on the comment, handing down a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail, six months of probation and a $100 fine. But an appellate court overturned it, since Prince Bane before the incident with Rushing had not officially been declared dangerous, a process that involves a ruling from a judge or magistrate.

Because the decision to overturn Jones’ conviction conflicted with a ruling from another appellate court district, the Ohio Supreme Court agreed to take up the case.

Ironically, Stewart’s opinion still found that Jones should not have been convicted. City prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence that Prince Bane had previously injured anyone, since the Facebook post only described the dog trying to “bite everybody,” the ruling stated.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices Pat DeWine and Michael P. Donnelly joined Stewart’s majority opinion, as did Seventh District Court of Appeals Judge Cheryl L. Waite, who sat in for Justice Pat Fischer.

An opinion from Justice Sharon Kennedy, joined by Justice Judith French, agreed with the majority’s decision to acquit Jones, but disagreed with their interpretation of state vicious-dog laws. The minority opinion questioned why state lawmakers laid out the legal process to declare a dog dangerous if it wasn’t required to be used to charge someone.