Man accused of sexually abusing dog

DELTA — Policy changes are in the works at Delta’s Animal Resource Center, after an 18-year-old man was accused of sexually abusing a dog there.

The Delta Police Department issued a summons in May to Jay Baker, accusing him of misdemeanor cruelty to animals. According to the district attorney’s office, formal charges hadn’t been filed as of Tuesday morning.

Police said Baker was completing court-ordered useful public service hours at the shelter last December.

He was unsupervised and walking the dog at the time of the alleged conduct, which according to police included sexual acts and an attempted sexual act.

Police said Baker told another person about the incident, and that individual contacted them in recent weeks. The investigation concluded May 19.

“What I think is important is, although this individual has (allegedly) admitted to the offense, he still has his day in court,” Delta Police Chief Robert Thomas said. “The allegation must be proven.”

Thomas said it looked to be an isolated incident — and unusual. The former Boulder police commander, who took over as DPD’s chief in April, said he has never before handled a case like Baker’s.

“He (Baker) never denied,” Delta Police spokeswoman Jamie Head said, referring to information in police reports. “In fact, he was very forthcoming when questioned. For the animal’s sake, and for the animal resource center’s sake, it was not as bad as we initially thought it was going to be.”

But the allegations were enough to trigger policy changes, Thomas and Head said, pledging accountability to the community.

The Delta shelter is a work site for the Delta courts’ useful public service program. Program clients have to obtain the approval of the animal resource center and the DPD commander who supervises the center.

Volunteers and useful public service clients are not allowed to have animals out of cages until they know the shelter’s cleaning processes. Baker was monitored except for when walking the dog.

“Since this has occurred, we have been in the process of re-evaluating our procedure of approving workers at the work site,” Head said. “Obviously, we weren’t fully aware of the background. It has raised some questions.”

The DPD has temporarily removed the animal resources center from the useful public service program’s work site list.

“We just want to re-evaluate how these people are getting approved,” Head said. “... We definitely don’t want anything like this to ever happen again.”

Thomas said he was not going to second-guess the administration prior to his, but instead was acting to correct mistakes and be accountable.

“We could have kept silent on this, and no one would ever know, but I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” he said.

“We may be criticized and we may not be criticized, but all I want to do is the right thing.”