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Two men enter not-guilty pleas in cat-abuse case
Published in the Home News Tribune 2/19/04
By RAVEN
HILL
STAFF WRITER
FRANKLIN: Two men charged with abusing a cat entered not-guilty pleas yesterday in connection
with the Feb. 4 incident.
Jason J. Mate, 31, of North Brunswick and Janos Kovas, 47, of the Somerset section of Franklin
are charged with trying to drown a feral cat in a bucket of kerosene, hitting it with a fire extinguisher -- and when it didn't
die -- burying it in the snow.
A hearing has been scheduled for April 14.
Franklin police turned the case
over to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The SPCA filed civil charges along with disorderly
persons summonses, said SPCA agent Murray Rothblatt.
Township Prosecutor Steven Rothblatt said the two men face up
to six months in jail, 30 days of community service and fines if found guilty.
Mate and Kovas work as maintenance
workers at the Franklin-Hamilton Gardens on Hawthorne Drive, where the alleged abuse occurred.
An anonymous caller
tipped Franklin animal-control officers to the alleged mistreatment of the animal. When police arrived, they saw the men trying
to bury the cat while it was in a Havahart trap, said Katie Nordhaus, animal-control officer for Franklin.
Raven
Hill: (732) 565-7321; rhill@thnt.com
Copyright 2004 Home News Tribune.
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