AR-News: (OK - US)Unbelievable verdict: Jury acquits man on animal cruelty charge

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>From Tulsa World


State Briefs: Perkins man is acquitted on animal cruelty charge 
By Staff Reports 
6/23/2004 

STILLWATER -- A Perkins man who was accused of tying a rope around a dog's neck so tightly that it grew into the dog's skin was acquitted Tuesday of animal cruelty by a Payne County jury. 

Perkins Police Chief Robert Williams expressed shock at the verdict. 

"With the photographs and all the testimony, it was beyond me how a jury could find him not guilty," he said. 

Williams said he listened to the testimony Monday from defendant Thomas Louis Verner, 58. 

"He admitted he put a ski rope on his (the dog's) neck -- that was one that grew into the neck" of the American bulldog, named Notorious, Williams said. 

The dog "had rotting tissue on his neck," which was badly infected and had maggots, Perkins veterinarian Monica Bentley testified at a preliminary hearing in August. 

When the dog was rescued in June 2003 after appearing at a neighbor's front door, "he was listless," Williams said. "He  

was in so much pain with all the infection. 

"Now the dog is in excellent health," he said. "He has more energy and vigor than I've ever seen. We may put him on the fire trucks." 

For more than a year, the dog has been in the custody of the Perkins animal control office which will assume ownership of the dog because the state has a lien on him for medical expenses and board, prosecutor Tom Lee said. He added that the dog would be put up for adoption.