Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker today withdrew animal cruelty charges against three RV workers for killing two cats in a trash compactor, but she seemed to indicate that she may refile them.
Becker declined interview requests but in a statement, she said a social media frenzy has erupted over a mistake her office made in wording the affidavit for probable cause. The affidavit said Jayco RV’s vice president of operations, Devon Miller, “indicated he believed the men acted in the company’s best interest” by killing the cats.
But Becker’s statement today said, “that phrase is not accurate because there is no evidence in the police investigation to suggest that Mr. Miller endorsed, or approved of” their actions.
It was not clear how that would affect the felony charges against the defendants, 44-year-old John Lipscomb, 29-year-old Travis McKay and 31-year-old Arlin Hochstetler, who admitted placing the cats in the compactor because they’d become a nuisance at the Middlebury plant and animal shelters were full.
