Posted on 08/22/2015 7:41:13 PM PDT by Coleus
Carlos Luaces, West Milford’s superintendent of public works, was charged Friday with animal cruelty for allegedly spraying a robin’s nest with pesticide, killing two chicks and destroying an egg.
As a result, Mayor Bettina Bieri also announced Friday evening that she had fired Luaces.
The Passaic County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals charged Luaces, of Byram in Sussex County, with knowingly poisoning a living animal and causing death, an indictable offense that is a third-degree crime.
The agency also charged Luaces with the lesser crime of knowingly poisoning an animal, which is a disorderly persons offense.
If convicted of a third-degree crime, Luaces could face three to five years in prison, plus face a fine, according to state sentencing guidelines.
The animal-protection agency also filed a civil complaint against Luaces to recover the costs of the investigation it conducted with the West Milford Police Department, said Alan Purcell, an agent with the county’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In announcing the firing, Bieri said that "While Mr. Luaces is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law until these charges are adjudicated, from an administrative perspective, based upon the circumstances that have come to my recent attention, his ability to lead the department has been compromised. As a result it is in the township's best interest to terminate his employment, and therefore as mayor, I have immediately given that directive."
The charges are based on interviews with a half-dozen public works employees, who said Luaces first ordered them to destroy the nest by spraying it with pesticide. The employees refused, and on July 16, Luaces allegedly took a spray can filled with pesticide and doused the nest, killing the chicks and destroying another egg, Purcell said.
“This was the second family of birds that had lived in the nest, and the employees had grown attached to it,” Purcell said. “They were feeding the birds strawberries and other things.”
The death of the birds left the workers distraught and clamoring for an investigation. One public works employee broke down in tears while she was being interviewed, Purcell said.
Instead of throwing the nest away, the workers stashed it so it could be used as evidence, Purcell said. West Milford police were called in first, then the animal-protection agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which conducted a separate probe into illegal spraying of pesticides. That investigation was not complete as of Friday, DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said.
Luaces, who was hired as DPW chief in April, could not be reached for comment on Friday. His attorney, Gary A. Kraemer, had not seen the complaint but said Luaces will fight the charges. .
“We deny all the charges and intend to plead not guilty and see the case through to success in court,” Kraemer said.
Luaces is due to make his first appearance in West Milford Municipal Court on Thursday. The judge will read the charges and determine whether there is enough evidence to refer the indictable offense to the grand jury.
yet in NJ it's ok to kill your baby in the womb up until birth.
if you read the comments at the end of the article, you see some people are way to emotional over this issue. And it wasn't too bright of this individual to kill the birds in this manner.
spca needs oversight: http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/spcapress.pdf
People are too emotional if the support abortion but freak out over birds... but as I oppose abortion of people as well as the senseless destruction of animals, I’m glad this dirtbag was fired and hope his next job is cleaning birdshit off windshields at a filling station car wash.
This person deserved to be fired. They showed such arrogance and complete misunderstanding of human motivations and human nature as to be unfit to be in charge of a cross country trip.
Wonder what the definition of "animal" is in those laws.
Are any "varmints" considered to be "animals"?
Did professional journalist Cowen say where the nest was located or did I miss it?
Anyway, I am sure glad that this town never “eurthanizes” stray cats or dogs and never traps and poisons rats and mice. If they do but get hysterical over robins then they are specieist bigots.
The chief is still a dumbass.
My home town..yay! I worked for the town, clerk’s office, for almost 3 yrs. :)
They sure as hell wouldn’t like me to live up there. However, I do live in Texas where we don’t have hysterical greenies and animal rights (except in Austin) and I enjoy the recent evenings shooting blackbirds out of the trees in my front yard to prevent them pooping on my truck and car each night.
Neighbors like to do it too. A pest is a pest and they only way to deal with it is to do away with the pest.
I wonder if the poor guy sent his cat up the tree to get the bird that the story would be the same? After all, cats gotta eat too.
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