28-year-old Thomas Arender of Mt. Carmel has pled not guilty to a Class 4 felony charge of aggravated cruelty in connection to the death of a pit bull earlier this year.
During a brief appearance this morning in Wabash County Circuit Court before Judge Christopher Weber, Arender’s court-appointed attorney Bill Easton waived a formal arraignment and entered the not guilty plea on Arender’s behalf. Easton said State’s Attorney Cassandra Goldman had complied with his request for discovery evidence and he needed time to examine the information. A pre-trial conference was scheduled for June 25th at 9am.
Like last month’s court appearance, several members of the Wabash County Animal Shelter Buddies were in the courtroom some wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with “Never Again…”.
Last week on their Facebook page, the Shelter Buddies posted that that the forensic necropsy report from the University of Illinois veterinary lab revealed there was absolutely no apparent reason for the one-year old blue pit bull named Zeus died resulting in the conclusion he was starved to death.
Arender remains free on a $10,000 bond. A condition of that bond is that he surrendered any pets and not be in charge of the care of any pets.
