Ex-shelter worker convicted of animal abuse
Jury rejects defense of poor training
A former Memphis Animal Shelter employee accused of choking dogs to control them as they were about to be euthanized was convicted Friday on four counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.
Billy Stewart, 29, was one of three shelter workers indicted last year following a severalmonth undercover investigation by police prompted by allegations of animal cruelty, animal fighting and unaccounted-for animals.
A Criminal Court jury of seven men and five women deliberated about four hours before returning the guilty verdicts and rejecting Stewart’s defense that included blaming the shelter for providing little or no training.
“I think Billy Stewart needs to be held responsible for his own actions,” state prosecutor Katie Ratton said after the verdicts. “Abusing animals is not proper procedure.”
The four felony counts each carry up to two years in prison, though Stewart is eligible to ask for diversion or probation when he is sentenced next month by Judge Paula Skahan.
He also was convicted of one count of misdemeanor cruelty that carries up to 11 months and 29 days in jail.
Stewart, who showed no reaction to the verdicts, remains free on bond.
Two other shelter employees — Frank Lightfoot Jr. and
Archie Elliott — pleaded guilty last year to cruelty charges stemming from the same investigation and were given short prison sentences.
In trial this week, the undercover officer, Daniel Arrington, testified that when Stewart led dogs into a room to be euthanized, he sometimes choked them into unconsciousness by tightening the noose at the end of a catch pole.
Arrington said Stewart choked at least five dogs in that manner between December 2011 and February 2012. Lightfoot, a former euthanasia technician, told jurors he witnessed four of the incidents.
He was not a witness to an incident on Dec. 17, 2011, the one count in which jurors returned the lesserincluded misdemeanor offense of cruelty to animals.
Witnesses said more humane control tech- niques available included the use of a squeeze gate on the wall in which a dog can be immobilized while a technician administers a sedative.
Stewart, who had been disciplined by the shelter for previous violations, denied the allegations of cruelty and told jurors that the more aggressive dogs sometimes choked themselves by twisting and turning in efforts to get free of the noose.
He said he was given little or no training, and his attorney, Paul Springer, argued that politicians and other officials should be held accountable for problems at the shelter.
In 2009, the Sheriff’s Office conducted a highly publicized raid at the old Memphis Animal Shelter on Tchulahoma after complaints of mistreatment and neglect of animals. The director, administrative supervisor and the shelter’s veterinarian all were indicted, though none were convicted.
After veterinarian Dr. Angela Middleton was acquitted in trial in what was believed to be the state’s strongest case, prosecutors dropped the charges against former director Ernest Alexander and supervisor Tina Quattlebam.
A new $7.2 million animal shelter was opened on Appling City Cove in November 2011, though continuing complaints about animal abuse prompted the undercover investigation that snared Stewart and two others.