Man Implicated In 2020 Animal Cruelty Case Charged: DA

DENVER, CO — A Denver man was charged Wednesday with one count of aggravated animal cruelty and is scheduled for first advisement in Denver District Court on March 2, according to the Denver District Attorney's office.

William Vernon, 30, was initially arrested in April 2020, after police responded to "a foul-smelling odor that was getting increasingly worse" in an apartment building, the District Attorney's office said in a news release.

The officer responding to the odor, who said that the smell was so bad he believed that a person might have died inside the apartment, had maintenance open the door when no one answered, according to the affidavit for Veron's arrest in 2020.

The apartment was covered in trash and rotting food and looked as though it had not been cleaned in months, the officer stated in the affidavit. A black and white dog was in a too-small cage in a corner of the living room.

Animal Control said in the affidavit that the dog was at a 1.5/9 on the Purina Body Weight Scale, which means that the dog was emaciated, and animal control could feel the dog's ribs and pelvic bone and observed that the animal had visible muscle loss.

Based on observations of the apartment and the animal, animal control made the assumption that the dog "may have been kept in the kennel for 2-3 weeks without food or water," according to the affidavit.

After officers signed off on a warrant to draw blood from the animal to determine the extent of the dog's malnourishment, officers went to the original apartment to drop a copy of the warrant off, according to the affidavit. Officers encountered Vernon, who said that he was not the owner of the dog before running from the officers.

The dog's real owner, who, according to the affidavit, had lost his dog and attempted to find him by putting up fliers, was found and eventually reconnected with the animal. Police said they identified Vernon on April 17, 2020, and a probable cause warrant for aggravated animal cruelty was issued for his arrest.

After extensive care, the animal is "reportedly doing extremely well with his recovery," the District Attorney's office said.