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Charges certified in dog-molestation case Date published: 7/8/2009
BY ELLEN BILTZ
The bestiality charge against a 66-year-old Spotsylvania man was certified yesterday after a judge heard evidence that the man had repeatedly forced a German shepherd dog to perform sex acts on him. The single charge against Robert Ward will go before a grand jury later this month. At Ward's preliminary hearing yesterday, his daughter testified that she noticed her dog, Reesie, acting strangely last fall and through the winter. "She would be real aggressive," the woman said, adding that Reesie's eating habits and mood changed. She said Reesie would also drag her bottom on the ground but did not have heartworms. She said she'd leave the dog at home with her father, who lived with her, for hours during the day while she was at work. Then in May, she said, Ward told her he'd been "playing" with and touching the dog. "I got too sick to listen to any of it," she said. She then called the police, she said. Jonathan Harvey, who was a deputy at the Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office at the time, testified yesterday that he was called by Ward's daughter and when he got to the home, Ward confessed that he had touched Reesie's "girl parts" and had made the dog do things to him. Ward's attorney, Ronald Hur, argued that the statute for bestiality calls for carnal knowledge, which Ward did not have, but that claim was overruled and Judge Michael Levy certified the charges to the grand jury. Ward is being held without bond at Rappahannock Regional Jail awaiting the next phase of his case. And this isn't his first time behind bars. Ward is already on the sex offender registry for molesting a young girl and he spent time in prison for that conviction. Ellen Biltz: 540/374-5424
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