by Judy Frank
posted January 23, 2007
A Marion County judge dismissed three of the 68 aggravated animal abuse charges against Joan Annette Mobley on Tuesday.
Ms. Mobley, 48, was arrested in 2005 after investigators found almost 150 dead, sick and/or neglected animals at the Perry Link Memorial Humane Animal Society, which she operated, and at her home.
Her trial on 68 counts of aggravated animal abuse began last Tuesday, and has been marked by heated exchanges between defense attorney Jes Beard and prosecution witnesses in the case.
Attorney Beard has contended the Marion County Detective Gene Hargis is incompetent and mishandled the investigation into who was responsible for the conditions at Perry Link.
Tuesday, in addition to dismissing three charges, Circuit Judge Thomas W. Graham reduced 51 of the charges to misdemeanors. That leaves just 13 charges to stand as felonies.
Prosecutors in the Mobley case have rested their case, and defense attorney Beard has begun calling witnesses.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. central time Wednesday in the Marion County Justice Center in Jasper.
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