According to a Coquille Police Department press release and as previously reported here, officers investigated a complaint of animal neglect at a N Baxter residence located near the courthouse. The apartment in question was found full of trash and animal feces spread throughout every room and officers were overwhelmed by the stench.
Police were unable to immediately reach Bobbi Brooks, the renter of record, or her daughter Katie who had resided at the apartment for some months alone. According to officers, the elder Brooks initially claimed no knowledge of the neglect but after investigation it was determined that Brooks was fully aware of the condition of both the animals and the apartment. Brooks, who works at the Coos County Courthouse as the administrative assistant to the Coos County Commissioners, has been arrested for animal neglect and booked at the Coos County Jail.
Damage to the apartment is so extensive that a civil suit may be filed by the landlord. In some instances, if damage is caused by the commission of a crime, the landlord may be able to file criminal charges of vandalism and seek restitution through criminal rather than civil court.
Today I visited Zee at the animal shelter and she is doing much better. She smelled strongly of flea medicine and having been properly hydrated and after a couple of good meals her ribs are much less prominent. Zee and the cat have already been adopted because Brooks surrendered them to animal control which begs the question of why she didn’t do this a month ago.
Zee will be living on a boat in Charleston “with her own bunk and pillow and lots of love,” says her excited new owner.
UPDATE
Sorry to hear about this, especially for the animals. Bobbi has been hard on residences before, though, so this isn’t that surprising really. Just saying I would not rent to her even before this happened.
Yes, I have heard that before from my own kids who used to play with Katie at her house when they were little. The frustrating thing is my daughter first told me about this on December 9 and I called CPD that day and we made subsequent calls to animal control and it still took twelve more days to get those pets out of there.
The World didn’t think it newsworthy to report on Sickinger’s piece this week regarding the attempts to hide pollution on the North Spit either. Real professionals there. I’m waiting for MM to tell us more about Caddys’ knowledge of that little morsel of information. What you say Caddy?
As far as Bobbie goes, I’m just trying not to even think about it. I,m so glad to see her paying for her abuse of innocent animals being taken seriously. Thank you to all those who paid attention and helped these little guys with no voice. If I were a cruel person I would wish Bobbie to gag on every bite she ever takes again, just
to remind her of the pain she caused these two critters. But I won’t.
Personally, I am wondering how the commissioners will handle this. By all accounts, Bobbi is good at her job but having this kind of stigma may impact her ability to work with other departments and the public going forward. Animal cruelty ranks right up there with child abuse and paedophilia as most hated crimes. Already it has impacted my view of Bobbi, right or wrong, so will it trouble the public enough for the commissioners to relocate her or let her go?
Apparently the downtown Coos Bay newspaper does not consider this to be news. Let’s see if the Coquille offspring of the downtown Coos Bay newspaper who apparently want to put Ms. Ivey out of business – not enough business to keep three papers alive – report this. If the downtown Coos Bay daily was a newspaper covering all newsworthy events in their area of circulation there would be no need for a clone newspaper. Interesting that Lee hired an out of town high school journalism instructor as editor / publisher – apparently believing that none of the downtown paper employees were qualified to do the job.
The World covered it, front page below the fold on Wednesday, I think.
http://theworldlink.com/news/local/coquille-woman-arrested-for-animal-neglect/article_768cb7fe-5757-5e17-b069-6daca4e35b70.html
This dog lover regrets that the slammer door swings both ways.
Me too but at least the dog will now have a Christmas!