A woman whose dog died from heat stroke when she left it locked inside her car while she was busy drinking with her son in a bar this summer has been bound to the grand jury.
The woman, Lynn Alison Barr, 55, was bound to the grand jury by Judge Bill Locke on the felony charge of aggravated animal cruelty. She was also bound on the misdemeanor count of public intoxication. The case has been pending since her arrest in July outside Dr. D’s on New Smithville Highway.
According to police reports, Barr had been drinking at the bar for a couple of hours when other patrons noticed there were two dogs inside her vehicle. It was around 6 p.m. and the temperature was well into the 80s.
“They stated the windows were only cracked a couple of inches and the temperature inside the car was dangerously hot,” said McMinnville patrolwoman Rachel Nichols regarding the eyewitness accounts.
Barr, who had been shooting pool and drinking, was eventually confronted by the patrons concerning the danger she was putting the dogs in by leaving them in the hot car.
“When she was confronted by some of the customers about the animals, she removed the Rottweiler from the car and walked it across the street to the flea market,” Nichols revealed. “Minutes later she returned to the bar without the dog to drink again and the management refused to serve her.”
Police were called after she tried to re-enter the bar against wishes of management. Police found her across the street at the flea market and immediately determined she was drunk. She was with her son at the time but he did not have a driver license. She was arrested for public drunkenness and jailed.
It was while she was being booked for the misdemeanor that police were directed to a tent at the flea market where Barr was seen taking the dog. The animal was found dead. Another smaller dog survived.
The arrest is not the first for Barr involving animals. She was convicted of selling a live rattlesnake to an undercover wildlife agent in 2013. She was fined for the misdemeanor.