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A Herndon man’s dog succumbed to the heat inside of a parked car in May after he was arrested for drunk in public. He’ll now spend five days in jail.
The incident first occurred on May 31, when Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the IHOP at Cedar Lake Plaza in Sterling after receiving a report of an intoxicated individual.
Stuart Grimes, 24, was taken into custody after a brief struggle, and was later taken before a magistrate judge and charged with drunk in public and obstruction of justice.
But that wouldn’t be all for Grimes, who had his dog, Rex, locked up in his vehicle in the IHOP parking lot.
The 4-year-old Labrador-Boxer mix died from heat stroke while in the car.
At the time, Grimes claimed that he told arresting deputies and Adult Detention Center personnel that the animal was in his vehicle – leading to a media firestorm in the days following Grimes’ arrest.
The Department of Animal Control conducted an investigation into the event, and found no evidence to support on confirm Grimes’ allegations, Shelter Administrator Laura Rizer said.
“After our investigation and looking into those allegations, they were unfounded,” Chief of the Animal Control division Adrienne Burton said.
A parallel investigation by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office confirmed similar results.
According to spokesman Kraig Troxell, no evidence had been found to indicate that Grimes mentioned there was a dog in the vehicle – or even the vehicle – to either the deputies who made the arrest or ADC personnel.
As a result of the investigations, Grimes was arrested again June 21 and charged with animal cruelty and confinement of an animal in a vehicle, adding to his tally of charges that included obstruction of justice without force, public intoxication and DUI.
At trial on Nov. 16, Grimes was found guilty of the original May arrest charges and of confinement of an animal in a vehicle, but not of animal cruelty.
He will spend five days in jail for his obstruction of justice without force conviction (with five months, 25 days suspended) and received an additional 60 suspended days for confinement and the DUI. Additionally, Grimes will face certain restrictions on his drivers license.
Grimes’ attorney Daniel Poretz did not return phone calls regarding the case. John Geddie contributed to this report.
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A**hole, go finish your beer and beating your kids.
So you lie to the police or prevent them from doing their job and you get 5 days in jail, with nearly 6 months suspended. Kill a gog due to your studity, no punishment. Lock up an animal and drunk in public, 2 months suspended. Obviously he drove there drunk (deserves to be locked away for a long time) but I understand there was no proof that he physically drove there. Everyone is blaming either him or the police… What about the justice system? Maybe if these idiots were punished for their crimes… they may think twice before committing them.
If you look up this idiots name on the court website you will see he has court again in December for violating his ASAP meetings related to a previous DWI…What a winner he is!
@Tired Of Whining ... I agree 100%! That loser obviously thought alcohol was a lot more important than his dog. He should be also be charged with felony stupidity!
I’ve followed the story from the beginning and I really find it hard to believe that he didn’t tell them about the dog. Drunk or not, I’m inclined to believe him. Besides that, I know that if I was dumb enough to leave my dog in the car, if there was commotion outside of the car while I was gone, such as someone being arrested and disorderly, he would not remain quiet. Did the dog not bark or was he too sick by this point? Did none of the workers or patrons leaving notice the dog in the car? Is he to blame for leaving his dog in the car? Absolutely. But I’d feel better about believing the LCSO & Animal Control side of the story that no mention of the dog was ever made if an independent, outside investigation was conducted. Sad situation all around, but I feel like the authorities do shoulder some of the blame.
Yea, my 2 year old daughter could write a better title to this article…geesh
@ashburn resident for the last time LCSO and Animal Control are no way connected. Animal Control officers are not sworn officers and are unarmed. The only thing they have in common is they work Loudoun County. I feel real bad for Rex, but it was this dead beat owners fault and no one elses.
one of the most poorly written headlines i’ve seen…could it be more convoluted and garbled? its not hard to write in understandable english, people at the LTM…try it out
Rex:
Did I sound Like I thought it was funny? No, I think that guy’s behavior was pathetic, but not as pathetic as these stories that run in the LTM announcing to the world of these miscreants’ behavior. So you’ve never once driven over the legal limit? You’ve never known anyone that has driven over the legal limit, even just a tad? Kudos for the world you live in my friend! Oh, and yeah I didn’t get my nickname by being nice.
@ The real A**hole. You might not think this was funny if it were your dog or child that cooked in that car. Let us hope that the police and Mr. Grimes learned a lesson. The police should have searched his car when they pushed the panic button for animals, children, drugs, whatever. Mr. Grimes, no matter how drunk, should have remembered his dog. The only thing that suffered here was Rex who died a horrible death. Let’s hope AC scolded both of them. Mr. A-hole, drunk drivers are hardened criminals, they drive around in five thousand pounds of steel, at high speeds that usually end up with someone dying.
Rest in peace Rex, rest in peace….
You have to be blind drunk to eat at IHOP. He actually did the dog a favor by not feeding it any doggie bags from IHOP.
The two “investigations” were conducted by two divisions of the LCSO. That’s hardly unbiased. I would HOPE the officers wouldn’t just ignore this man’s pleas about his dog…if he did make them. Sad story.
Thanks for keeping us updated on this story. We were afraid to go out of our house until this criminal was locked away for good. It is so important that Loudoun Times Mirror keep the public informed when hardened criminals are back on the street. (Laughs to self about the inane nature of this story)
He lied to make the cops seem like monsters but he was the one who didn’t say anything fearing a DUI on top of the drunk in public charge.
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