Man accused of burning cat pleads not guilty

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

An Ohio man accused of setting a cat on fire has pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges.

Police arrested 26-year-old D’erise Carson on Thursday in Cleveland. He is accused of slamming a cat into the ground repeatedly and then setting it on fire with lighter fluid earlier this year.

The cat died from its injuries, and police issued a warrant for Carson’s arrest.

Carson pleaded not guilty Friday to four misdemeanor counts of cruelty against companion animals. No attorney is listed for him in court records.

A pretrial hearing for Carson is scheduled scheduled Aug. 27.

Carson’s arrest follows another Northeast Ohio animal-cruelty case.

On Wednesday, Akron police arrested a man for kicking a stray cat into the air. Videos of that went viral on the Internet.