Judge rejects animal cruelty deal
BENTONVILLE — Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green refused to accept a plea agreement for a former Rogers police officer accused of abandoning three dogs without food or water for months in her home.
Jerri Michelle Beyard, 41, is charged with aggravated cruelty to a dog, cat or horse. She previously pleaded innocent to the charges.
Beyard was in court Monday where the attorneys presented a proposed agreement to resolve the case. However, the judge refused to accept the agreement and instead scheduled a jury trial to begin March 5.
Terms of the proposed agreement were not released Monday.
Beyard was arrested in May 2022.
She admitted to police she abandoned her three dogs without food or water in her home from September 2021 until their bodies were discovered about eight months later, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Rogers police went May 7, 2022, to 1203 W. Linda Lane in reference to an animal complaint, according to the affidavit. The property manager told police he went to check the home because he believed the tenant had abandoned the property due to her being several months behind on rent, according to the affidavit.
The property manager said he hadn’t been in contact with Beyard since January 2022, the affidavit states. He told the officer he believed Beyard was a Rogers police officer.
The affidavit states Beyard was no longer an officer but was employed by the Police Department in a civilian capacity.
The property manager told the officer when he went in the home he discovered two dead dogs inside, according to the affidavit.
The officer spoke to neighbors, who told him they hadn’t seen Beyard in four months. The officer photographed the dogs, whose bodies were extremely decomposed, the affidavit states.
A Rogers police detective and the property manager later went back to the residence and discovered a third extremely decomposed dog locked in a cage, according to the affidavit.
Beyard worked as a Rogers police officer from August 2003 to May 2015.