ALLEGED HORSE ABUSER INDICTED
Arraignment set next month for Allston teen
A Norfolk County grand jury has indicted a Boston teen allegedly caught on camera sexually assaulting a horse, prosecutors said.
Jackson Kelley, 19, of Allston, was indicted Wednesday on one count each of animal cruelty and sexual contact with an animal.
Kelley is scheduled to be arraigned in Dedham District Court on Oct. 7 at 2 p.m.
In July, Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cusick said that Kelley would pose a danger if he were released.
When she asked Norfolk Police Detective Samuel Webb whether the horse, a Trakehner Thoroughbred named Bellissima, showed signs of pain, Webb said, “The horse moved away several times and elevated her leg in a kicking motion.”
But Wrentham District Court Judge Michelle Fentress released Kelley on the conditions that he undergo a mental health evaluation, wear a GPS device and stay away from all animals.
His attorney, Anthony Musto, suggested at the time that the teen is not the person who Webb testified was caught on camera masturbating and sexually assaulting a horse about 10 times in a 38-minute video from a surveillance camera at Turner Hill Equestrian Center.
“Many of the tips (police received) were people other than the defendant,” Musto said.
Webb said he was able to rule out those people and hone in on Jackson, who “had the same height, body type and skin tone” as the man in the video. Both had a red cell phone, the detective said, and the center’s owner told him that Kelley had been part of a group that had ridden there. He also had lived in the past with his adoptive parents in Norfolk, Webb said.
Kelley turned himself in to authorities with his attorney present. Police at the time charged him with sexual contact with an animal, breaking and entering in nighttime to commit a felony and cruelty to animals.
Police said they received “many calls providing information which eventually led to the identification of Kelley as the suspect.”
Kelley, a cook, allegedly broke into the equestrian center before dawn on July 15. Surveillance camera footage showed the culprit demonstrated a familiarity with horses, haltering and cross-tying the mare he violated, according to authorities.
The center’s owner, Hillary Swarr, told police she has a stall tenant whose mother has access to Swarr’s camera system.
“She couldn’t sleep last night and decided to look at the cameras,” Webb said in his report. “She saw the assault take place.”
Police are awaiting DNA test results taken from swabs of the horse.
“I look at this person as a sexual predator,” Swarr told the Herald at the time. “It’s a threat to a very small community where a lot of people feel extremely violated and rightfully so.”