Pennsylvania: Nicole Hairston and Tso Calloway charged in Charleroi animal cruelty case

PENNSYLVANIA -- A tip helped police track down the alleged owners of three dogs found nearly dead in a vacant Charleroi apartment last month.

Charleroi Regional Police charged Nicole Lynn Hairston, 32, and Tso Calloway, 21, both of Fallowfield Avenue, Charleroi, with six counts each of animal cruelty.

K-9 Officer Bill Gardner and Officer Ryan Brand found the dogs July 11 when they were checking for squatters at a condemned three-story apartment building in the 700 block of Washington Avenue.

Residents had been ordered to leave the building by July 1 because the borough refused to renew a rental license for the owner.

Once inside, the officers heard a dog barking in a first-floor apartment. They forced their way inside and found the dogs inside a sweltering, feces-stained bedroom with no food or water, according to a criminal complaint.

Police said the young pit bulls – one male and two females ranging in age from 1 to 3 – were emaciated and in poor health. Police said no one had been living in the apartment for more than a year, but they estimated the dogs had been there since at least July 1.

The dogs were handed over to Cathy Cunningham, a humane officer in Washington County.

Cunningham, of Report Inhumane Cruelty and Abuse of Animals Today, said Wednesday the dogs have been placed in new homes.

Charleroi Regional Chief Eric Porter said Hairston and Calloway have been identified as the dogs' owners.

Brand filed the charges Monday with Magisterial District Judge Larry Hopkins in Charleroi.

Calloway and Hairston will receive the charges via postal summons and are scheduled for preliminary hearings before Hopkins 9 a.m. Sept. 10.

Other crimes by same suspects

In a separate case, Hairston and Calloway each waived their right to a preliminary hearing on charges of defiant trespass. They were arrested July 13 in Charleroi.

Hairston was sentenced to six months on probation after pleading guilty to possession of a controlled substance Jan. 22 before Washington County Judge Valarie S. Costanzo.

Charleroi Regional charged her on Aug. 6, 2014, in that case.

(Trib Live - Aug 13, 2015)