He's not a 'Serial Cat Killer' After All [View all]

[The Straight Story]

He's not a 'Serial Cat Killer' After All

MIAMI (CN) - A 20-year-old man claims he was maliciously prosecuted as a "serial cat killer" in a widely publicized case that stemmed from sloppy forensic work and alarmist allegations.

All the charges were dropped, but not until after his name and photo had been published across South Florida, and he was subjected to public vilification, much of which can still be seen by a simple Internet search of his name.
...

Police reported that at least 33 cats had been killed, and Miami-Dade Animal Services said the pets had been dissected, then dropped off at the owners' homes and left in posed positions, according to the complaint.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police arrested Weinman, then an 18-year-old high school senior. Weinman says police arrested him in a desperate attempt to calm the mounting hysteria.
Weinman says government veterinarians bungled the investigation, and that his attorney proved that the dead cats had "puncture wounds consistent with bite marks of large predators, such as dogs."

He also claims that Miami-Dade Animal Services waited "more than fourteen (14) months after the arrest of Mr. Weinman, to reveal that two (2) large vicious wild dogs had been seized in the area of Cutler Bay by Animal Services the very same day (June 13, 2009) as Mr. Weinman's arrest and the end of the cat killings." (Parentheses in complaint.)

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/03/43607.htm