The Marietta Daily Journal – Cobb DA spearheads animal abuse unit

MARIETTA — In an attempt to streamline and bring expertise to felony animal abuse cases, Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds has created a new unit in his office.

Sherwin Figueroa and Theresa Schiefer, who both joined the District Attorney’s Office earlier this year, will now be a part of the Animal Abuse Unit.

They will prosecute all cases where animal cruelty is the main charge, regardless of the superior courtroom the case is assigned to, in addition to their regular cases, at no extra cost to the taxpayer, Reynolds said.

“I’m very much in support of this,” Reynolds said. “The last couple of (animal abuse cases) we’ve seen have been pretty brutal, and we want to get out in front of this thing while we can and we want folks to know that when you commit this type of crime here, there’s going to be some consequences for it.”

His office prosecuted five felony aggravated cruelty to animal cases in 2011 and 2012 and, so far in 2013, there have been two cases indicted.

via The Marietta Daily Journal – Cobb DA spearheads animal abuse unit.