Luaces, who is charged with two counts of animal cruelty, had a pre-indictment proceeding in Superior Court on Thursday. The charges, knowingly poisoning an animal and knowingly poisoning an animal that causes death, are both third-degree offenses that carry a maximum punishment of three to five years in prison and a fine.
The charges are based on interviews with a half-dozen public works employees, who said Luaces first ordered them to destroy the nest by spraying it with pesticide.
The employees refused, and on July 16, Luaces allegedly took a spray can filled with pesticide and doused the nest, killing the baby chicks and destroying another egg, Purcell said.
“This was the second family of birds that had lived in the nest, and the employees had grown attached to it,” Purcell said. “They were feeding the birds strawberries and other things.”
Luaces, of Byram in Sussex County, was terminated from his $80,000-a-year job on Aug. 21, the day the Passaic County chapter of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed criminal charges against him. Thursday’s procedure in Superior Court is known as an early screening, which is the first step in the pre-indictment conference.
The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office did not offer a plea bargain on Thursday. The hearing was adjourned until Sept. 29. A plea bargain could be offered when the hearing resumes, a court officer said.
(North Jersey - Sept 10, 2015)
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