Posted on 07/23/2003 6:38:02 PM PDT by mhking
A man accused of having sex with a sheep used in a Charleston nativity scene has struck a deal with Kanawha County prosecutors that allowed him to stay out of jail.
Joey Armstrong, 30, will serve two years of probation and be required to get some mental health care for breaking into a funeral home's manger scene and molesting an animal, according to court documents and his lawyer, public defender Stephen Kenney.
The deal, inked last month with little fanfare, will give Armstrong a chance to begin piecing together his life, Kenney said. He said his client was shaken up after his December 2002 arrest on charges of cruelty to animals, trespassing and destruction of property.
"It's not the sort of fame that anyone would seek," Kenney said of his client, who now lives in a Charleston homeless shelter. "You basically become an outcast everywhere you go. He's an outcast at the homeless shelter. He's very ashamed. He's filled with shame."
The deal came despite pressure from animal rights advocates to send Armstrong to jail.
A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the group is "appalled" that Armstrong was getting off with what amounted to a slap on the wrist.
"We're outraged at this injustice and remain concerned for the safety of the people and animals in that community," said Martin Mersereau, a spokesman for the group.
Officials from the Kanawha County Prosecutor's Office were not immediately available to comment on the case.
Armstrong could have been sent to jail for more than a year if convicted of all the charges in the case. But as part of his plea agreement, he will be able to avoid jail if he behaves himself over the next two years.
The agreement required Armstrong to plead guilty to destruction of property. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the trespassing charge and agreed to drop the cruelty to animals charge in June 2005, provided Armstrong sticks to a mental health care program for the next two years.
Armstrong has already had a psychiatric evaluation that determined he "is not a risk of any significant repeat behavior like this, and he's not a threat," Kenney said. "But he does have some issues. He's dealing with some mental health professionals."
Writer Toby Coleman can be reached at 348-4886.
I think it takes a little more than a slap to get this guy off...
I like that a lot........
ummm... there is a joke here, but I lack the baaaaahhhs to go fur it.
When you have bottomed out to the point that you can't show your face at a homeless shelter, you have really hit rock bottom. Look at it this way though, the guy isn't completely worthless. He can always serve as a bad example.
A man delivering farm supplies to a sheep farm was astonished to look out into the field and see a man participating in unnatural congress with one of the sheep. Horrified and disgusted the driver parked his truck at the house and knocked on the door. A boy opened the door and the man told him," Son, I don't want to alarm you but there's a fella out in your pasture uh, abusing one of your sheep."
"That's okay," said the boy, "he's my daaaaaddy."
Not as shaken up as was the poor sheep!
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