Puppy Killer Settles Criminal Case

Ned Proffitt's lawyer and the D.A.'s office arranged to quietly settle the case in another neighboring county back in October.

While the settlement slipped under the radar for a couple of months we uncovered the deal and found some unanswered questions.

In home video taken by a man who was trick-or-treating with his children Halloween night 2005 you can see Ned Proffitt walk on to property he does not own in Decatur and kill stray puppies with a hammer.

When parts of the video aired on NewsChannel 9 it triggered an immediate response from the Meigs County community.

Cindy Ledford said Tuesday "I rescued the remainder of the puppies that weren't killed."

After that happened Ledford and others organized CARE, Citizens for Animal Rights and Education.

They followed the case in Meigs County Criminal Court, which kept getting passed. Proffitt was indicted by a grand jury on two felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Two years later on October 15, 2007 his lawyer and prosecutors strike a deal in neighboring Louden County. Proffitt pleads to reduced misdemeanor charges and gets his time in jail diverted.

"I was expecting to follow it through the courts here. It was my understanding that there was such a public outcry about it that it was going to be dealt with here so that people could understand cruelty to animals is very serious," Ledford said.

Louden County Judge Eugene Eblen ordered Proffitt to make a "$2,000 contribution to Animal Control in Meigs County."

But what that means remains a mystery.

Ledford said "we have no animal control here, and I received phone calls about that at my business all morning. We want to know where the money is going."

And so do we. We asked Meigs County Circuit Court Clerk Darrell Davis where Proffitt's $2,000 contribution is, and he said it's in his office. Davis said he's waiting to hear from assistant D.A. Frank Harvey with instructions on what to do with it.

"I hope they will step up to the plate and see that there's a great need for some animal control. We have starving horses all over the county, the stray population is horrible here," Ledford said.

Since our story aired two years ago two dog rescue organizations formed along with CARE - Linda's Dogs for Adoption and The Haven Puppy Rescue. But there's only so much they can do since the county has no animal control.

Neither of the assitant D.A.'s who handled the case have returned our calls to explain where Proffit's court-ordered $2,000 contribution will go and why the case was moved to another county.

During the last two years Proffitt has refused to comment about the case other than to say he had no other choice but to kill the puppies because he thought they were viscious and threated people who live in his mobile home parks.