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.
Tyler Hayes Weinman was a high school senior in 2009 when Miami-Dade Police arrested him and charged him with 19 counts of animal cruelty, four counts of burglary and 19 counts of wrongfully disposing of dead animals.
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.
Weinman and his father, a dentist, sued Miami-Dade County, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the University of Florida, and veterinarian Melinda Merck, in Miami-Dade County Court.
Residents of the Southeast Miami suburbs of Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay believed they were being terrorized by a serial cat killer in the spring of 2009.
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.)
Weinman says that after Cutler Bay Police received "numerous calls regarding dead cats," they requested assistance from Miami-Dade Police.
"As part of the investigation, Miami-Dade Animal Services was contacted to have their investigators come to the Cutler Bay area and assist with the investigation inasmuch as the police officers believed that they did not possess the expertise to determine the cause and manner of death of the cats," the complaint states.
"Miami-Dade Animal Services Investigator Fernando Casadevall arrived to assist the police department (accompanied by a film crew from the Animal Planet Television Network). That investigator made a determination on the scene that the deceased cats appeared to have been killed by a person and dissected after they were dead. Investigator Casadevall also explained that since the cats were found in 'posed positions,' with no blood around the area, the cats had been 'cleaned' and placed at the scene by a human being. Investigator Casadevall maintained the opinion that the ever-growing number of deceased cats were killed by a human being and not by an animal predator.
"Allegedly, an anonymous 'tip' came to the Cutler Bay Police Department stating that a young man by the name Tyler Weinman was involved in the killing of the cats.
"Initially, two contract veterinarians from Miami-Dade Animal Services did necropsies of the deceased cats upon the request of Investigator Casadevall. These veterinarians also came to the conclusion that the cats were not being killed by predators.
