YOUNGSTOWN Police report cases of animal cruelty

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When police saw Zeriah L. Cheatham drive to his Parker Street home, they knew they had him on more than animal cruelty charges.
The 27-year-old man drove his 2001 Cadillac Sedan DeVille without a valid license Monday, reports said.
He spent the night in the county jail, pending arraignment today in municipal court. He faces three counts of animal cruelty, three counts of failure to confine vicious dogs and driving under suspension.
Police said that over the weekend they found a dead dog in a cage on Cheatham's East Side property when they checked out a report of a loose pit bull. He was not home at the time.
Aside from the loose dog, police found two more chained in the yard. Officers gave food and water to the animals.
Detective Sgt. Douglas Bobovnyik and Patrolman Dave Wilson arrested Cheatham on Monday when he pulled into his driveway. Police had gone to the house with Dave Nelson, Animal Charity humane investigator.
Nelson took the dogs.
Previous case: In July 1999, municipal Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. found Cheatham guilty of failure to confine a vicious dog, a pit bull, records show. The judge fined Cheatham $50 and suspended it all. Cheatham paid $60 in court costs.
Cheatham also has four convictions for loud music from a motor vehicle.
Across town Monday, at 138 E. Florida Ave. on the South Side, Patrolman Dan Mikus responded to a barking dog complaint and found a midsize dog living out of an old abandoned car inside a garage that has no door. The animal was on a chain attached to the inside of the car and hooked to a choker collar.
Mikus said the dog, which looked malnourished and had no food or water, had originally been chained inside the car, which smelled of feces and had chewed seats.
Chain was stuck: The dog had jumped through a car window, causing its chain to become lodged in a corner of the window. The stuck chain prevented the dog from sitting down or lowering its head, Mikus said in his report.
Mikus issued a citation to Frederick McCormick, 44, charging him with animal cruelty and failure to have the dog registered.
McCormick said his son must have tied the dog like that and took the animal in his house. Mikus, though, said the evidence suggests that the dog had been in that condition for quite a while.
The officer had the abandoned, unlicensed car towed.
McCormick was due in municipal court today for arraignment.
As far as the barking-dog complaint, Mikus said he realized the sound was coming from the house next door, at 132 E. Florida. He found two dogs tied up in the rear yard, one without shelter, food or water and wearing a spiked collar that had dug into its neck.
The second dog was tied behind the garage on a short leash with no shelter or food and a mixture of blood and water to drink, Mikus said.
Nelson, the Animal Charity investigator, confiscated the dogs pending charges of animal cruelty. The resident was not home at the time.
A Mahoning County deputy dog warden, meanwhile, ran into difficulty when trying to remove three dogs Monday afternoon at 36 S. Garland Ave.
Police arrested a 17-year-old girl who they said interfered and took her to the juvenile justice center pending a charge of obstruction of official business.
The girl used obscene language with police and the dog warden, reports said.