A bench warrant has been issued for a Garner, North Carolina couple accused of abandoning 17 cats on Thanksgiving weekend. This PoC article tells of their arrest January 12, 2017.
Terry Ray Beasley and Tamara Perez-Lazaro were scheduled to appear before a Johnston County judge on April 24. When they failed to appear a bench warrant (not a felony warrant) was issued for the couple.
A bench warrant is an arrest warrant issued by a judge or court, most commonly when a defendant fails to appear at a scheduled court hearing. This is also known as a “Failure to Appear,” or “FTA,” warrant.
Police aren’t known for going out and tracking down those who have these warrants issued against them if the crime doesn’t put others in danger. Instead, they play a waiting game (and with Terry Ray Beasley’s past criminal activities, it probably won’t be a long wait).
A person is usually caught through no fault of their own. For instance, the next time either of them is pulled over in a vehicle, even for a thorough road check, their name will be run through the system by the police officer. Or if police are called to a home for a domestic disturbance each person present can expect being checked for outstanding warrants.
Once found, Perez-Lazaro and Beasley will be taken into custody and held until they pay the bond (the amount of money the court has determined that they owe) or until an appointed time when the judge can see them and decide the next step.
With their track record, I’d about bet on neither of them being released on any bond until the case is heard by the judge. Until they’re caught or turn themselves in, we wait.
Can anyone reading this who is knowledgeable in the legal profession leave a comment on how the bench warrant being issued will impact their case when they are caught?
As of April 27, 11 cats dumped by the couple have been found safe, one was found dead and five are still missing.
Elisa
That’s our resident cat hating troll.
Strange comments above! To get back to specifics, abandoning an animal is a criminal offense in NC as elsewhere in US. Missing court may seems like a big deal but actually it is very common. Go to calendar call in any NC district courtroom & you may be surprised to see that a large percentage (maybe about 30%) don’t show up. It’s so common that there is a mechanism whereby if you go to the courthouse the next day & fill out a motion form for a new court date (giving reason you missed court), a new date is granted automatically. If you don’t get there the first day, you can still fill out the form, but the motion needs to go up to a judge for approval.
If a new court date is granted, the order for arrest will be recalled. If this isn’t done, of course the defendant is subject to arrest. The sheriff’s dept. will attempt to do this by going to the defendant’s address as listed on the original warrant, but of course people change addresses & if this fails there often are no resources to hunt further, especially for misdemeanor cases. If a defendant is arrested he/she goes before a magistrate who will set a new bond for release, higher than the first one set when the case began but still lower for animal cases than one might expect. If bond cannot be met the defendant stays in jail until the trial date.
The defendants in this case may have left the area. This case may never be resolved.
I have amended your comment.
What a crock!…
You are free to comment but not as you naturally have an urge to…rudely and insulting others. You are a very objectionable person. PoC is doing great. It is in the top five cat sites in my view. There are a lot of people who are decent and who understand the ethics behind PoC and there are people like you who are frankly highly unpleasant and sick. (Admin)