Rhode Island: Stacey Derouin, 41, charged with abandoning cats at Taco Bell drive-thru

RHODE ISLAND -- A Cranston woman has been criminally charged after allegedly abandoning a pair of cats at a Taco Bell drive-thru in Coventry.

Two people were caught on camera Thursday morning arriving in a car, taking two cat carriers out and putting them on the grass outside the building, getting back in their car, ordering food, and driving away.

 

Police distributed photos and video in an effort to identify the people involved.

According to Chief John MacDonald, police took an anonymous tip Saturday identifying the two people.

Officers contacted one of them, 41 year-old Stacey Derouin, and made arrangements to have her come to the police department for questioning.

MacDonald said Derouin admitted to the investigating officer that she and a male acquaintance - Kenneth Germani - abandoned the cats there, but she swears she only did this after supposedly trying to get several animal shelters to take the cats.

The two cats are in the care of Coventry Animal Control.

Derouin was charged with two counts of abandonment of animals from a motor vehicle and given a court date of February 8th; she was also charged with not vaccinating the cats against rabies and given a Municipal Court date.

After being charged, she was released with a summons.

  

The investigation is ongoing in connection to the male suspect, Kenneth Germani. Police are looking for him for questioning.



(WJHL - Jan 29, 2017)