A Boynton Beach man is facing a felony animal cruelty charge after he was seen on surveillance video and by witnesses abusing his dog on two separate days last week, police said.
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Juan Latrez Poole, 52, was arrested Monday and has since been released from jail after posting bail on a $30,000 bond, court records show.
Just after 11:30 a.m. Sept. 9, a woman who was stopped in traffic near a bus stop in the 2300 block of South Federal Highway called Boynton Beach Police to report watching a man lift up a 50-pound black lab, wearing a service dog vest, over his head before slamming it to the ground, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Officers could not find the man or the dog, named Rex, at the time. The next morning, officers received a similar call in the same area of South Federal Highway, where another woman reported seeing a man choking a dog with its leash, lifting it off the ground by the leash and hitting it with a water bottle, the affidavit said.
The woman told officers the dog looked obviously frightened and was flinching and shaking on the ground as it looked at its owner, according to the affidavit.
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Boynton Beach Police Animal Control officers found surveillance video that showed both incidents and identified Poole as the man in the videos, the police department said in a statement Wednesday.
“Rex was transported to Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control and is currently looking for his forever home,” the police department said.
Sitting handcuffed in the back of a police car on Monday afternoon, Poole told an officer that his dog did not have any “bruises” and was not “damaged” after the officer explained the charge against him, body-worn camera video released Wednesday showed. The officer told Poole two witnesses watched him harm his dog on two different dates.
“I’ve never hit my dog, and that is completely untrue,” Poole said in the body-camera video. “Unless you have some kind of video evidence, is what I’m looking for.”
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