ELKO, NV – A Nevada man was recently sentenced to prison for physically and sexually abusing someone else's dog while it was briefly in his possession.
Thomas Copland is a jack of all trades that likes a little rough stuff with a ruff-ruff on the side, and this proclivity for tormenting pooches with pricks and pokes just derailed his whole genius criminal enterprise.
The 32-year-old Spring Creek, Nevada man was arrested on a sunny Saturday morning in mid-August after a sheriff’s deputy came into contact with a dog that had multiple safety pins embedded in it, as well as burns and injuries consistent with that love that dare not speak its name, bestiality. Determining that the dog was "last known to be in Copland’s possession before the injuries occurred," the deputy went looking for our Doggie Don Juan.
Probably knowing that Copland isn't too bright from past dealings with him, police went straight to his house, where a female resident obligingly gave them permission to search the premises. Cops located Copland in short order, hiding in a closet. He knew they were looking for him, he said.
Despite pleading not guilty, Copland was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for torturing or injuring an animal, as well as being ordered to pay $817.51 in restitution by Elko District Court Judge Nancy Porter.
While he was handy, Elko District Court Judge Al Kacin concluded a bit more of the state's business relative to Kosmo Copland, sentencing him to more prison time for an unrelated set of grand larceny charges, and adding more restitution expenses related thereto.
11 post-bestiality counts of burglary and other charges for grand larceny and theft by misrepresentation are still pending.
Copland has pled not guilty to these charges as well.