RAEFORD, N.C. (AP) - The former co-owner of an animal shelter where at least 600 animals were found in conditions described by the sheriff as “sad” is now facing child pornography charges.
Local media outlets reported the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office said 69-year-old Stephen Spear was charged Thursday with 114 counts of second- and third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.
Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said the images were found on computers and records that lawmen seized during a 2016 investigation of animal cruelty and neglect at The Haven-Friends for Life that Spear and his wife operated.
Spear was charged in 2009 with second- and third-degree exploitation of a minor. Cumberland County prosecutors dismissed those charges in 2013 after Spear agreed to a plea bargain.
Spear is being held on $228,000 bail on the latest charges.
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