Animal cruelty cases main focus of Metro unit

For five years, a small Metropolitan Police Department unit has investigated cruelty cases involving animals such as the Yorkshire terrier whose then-owner was arrested last summer after punching, choking and hanging the small dog from its leash outside a Las Vegas Strip resort.

Months later, Jack is happy and thriving in his new home. Detective Robert Sigal said in a November interview with the Review-Journal that investigating people who abuse animals like Jack is important to stopping other violent crimes in Las Vegas.

“People that commit animal cruelty commit other forms of violence,” Sigal said. “They commit our domestic violence, they commit our child abuse. Sometimes they’ve been known to go on and become serial killers as well.”

About five years ago, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided to put more focus on animal cruelty investigations, which led to the formation of the police unit and dedicated animal cruelty prosecutors, said Sigal, who helped start the unit.

Sigal handles only felony crimes while misdemeanors such as improper licensing or breeding permit violations are investigated by animal control officials.

That means he spends most days behind a computer, digging into tips and searching through records. It takes a lot of background work before detectives are able to break up a cock-fighting ring or locate an abused dog in a video posted to Facebook, said Sigal, currently the only detective with the animal cruelty unit since his partner was re-assigned.

A terrier’s tale

When a passerby called 911 on July 2 to report a man was punching and choking a small Yorkshire terrier in front of the Encore, a field officer went to arrest 32-year-old Miguel Rivera.

But Sigal was the one who investigated the surveillance footage, which showed Rivera spinning the dog by a leash in a “helicopter motion” and hanging the dog by its leash from a fence, according to an arrest report.

Rivera has pleaded guilty to a felony count of cruelty to animals, and is awaiting a Dec. 29 sentencing hearing, said Ashley Lacher, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case.

“I think it’s really crucial to have certain investigators or detectives that know how to investigate these kinds of cases because it makes it so much easier (to prosecute)” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Sarah Overly, who oversees animal cruelty cases for the district attorney’s office.

But unlike many animal cruelty cases, this one had a happy ending. Lacher said Rivera, who was visiting Las Vegas from California when he was arrested, did not reclaim his dog so the Yorkshire terrier was adopted by a secretary in the District Attorney’s Office.

Marcela Jauregui, who adopted the terrier and renamed him Jack, said he has no lasting physical injuries and now gets along with her other two dogs. Jauregui said she wanted to give Jack a new home after reading his story in the news.

“He acts like he’s a puppy,” Jauregui said during a November interview, while Jack walked around the room in his blue collar decorated with a bow-tie.

Lacher said Jack is “night and day different” from the pictures taken after Rivera’s arrest. She said seeing Jack adopted was “definitely one of the happiest days of my career.”

‘It affects people differently’

The animal abuse unit falls under Metro’s homicide and sex crimes bureau, where detectives investigate “terrible cases” such as child deaths, sexual assaults and killings, Sigal said. But many of his coworkers won’t look at the pictures and videos he handles.

“You grew up with animals. They’re the ones that you go home to, the ones that comfort you when you’re having a bad day,” he said. “So when you see that animal that’s been abused or tortured, it affects people differently.”

Of all the investigations, Sigal said it’s the hoarding cases that stick with him. Especially the smells.

In 2016, he and other detectives seized hundreds of animals, including a 10-foot-long snake, from a nonprofit sanctuary that was run out of a home in Cold Creek, a rural neighborhood about 34 miles north of Las Vegas.

In another case, he investigated a home with nearly 40 Italian greyhounds living inside. At least one had died, and the entire floor was covered in inches of excrement from the dogs.

“But luckily we were able to rescue those dogs and a lot of them were able to get a good home out of it,” Sigal said.

While the animal abuse unit has helped successfully prosecute cases, Overly said she would like to see legislators impose stricter sentences. When Rivera is sentenced for abusing Jack, the maximum prison term he will face is four years, and the judge could give him probation instead.

Sigal said his role allows him to properly investigate animal abuse for the sake of the animals, and to prevent someone from committing a violent crime against another person.

“One of the problems you have with an animal, just like a (small) child, they can’t speak,” he said. “They can’t tell you what occurred. So you have to use all your other resources to try to build that story.”

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.