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Official faces discipline in death of cat
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET and CARRIE JOHNSON CITRONELLE -- The gray stray had been up in the loblolly pine tree for a good week or so, some 50 or 60 feet above ground. An Animal Control officer set a trap at the base of the tree, but wondered whether it would eventually take a dart gun to get the cat down, a report notes. Animal Control Director Hank Baggett succeeded two days later in removing the cat from the tree on W Disney Lane, in a rural neighborhood a couple of miles east of County Road 495. But county officials say he did so by shooting and killing the feral feline with his gun, a fact he failed to note in the case file but later told a supervisor. Baggett, 54, was put on paid leave April 11 while the county sorts out the facts and decides what disciplinary action to take. The sketchy details of the bizarre Feb. 13 incident should be fleshed out today, when the county releases its findings. According to a report, a neighbor had complained to Animal Control about the stray cat. The neighbor could not be reached for comment. Another worker for Animal Control filed the initial report on the incident, and Baggett made a brief addition that he "removed (the) cat from (the) tree." "Based on the preliminary violations, the disciplinary action could range from a letter of reprimand right up to a dismissal," said Randy Petitt, the county's human resources director. "The three areas under consideration are conduct unbecoming a public employee, falsification of a public document and failure to perform job duties by reporting through the chain of command." Baggett's supervisor, Public Safety Director Charles Poliseno, led the fact-finding mission and will recommend the county's course of action. At a closed-door hearing tentatively scheduled for April 25, County Administrator Richard Wesch will hear from Poliseno and Baggett's attorney, Aubrey Earl Cox of Palmetto, before deciding on the appropriate discipline. Baggett could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Cox did not return a telephone call. Mark Mersereau, a cruelty case worker for the Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said there is no excuse for an animal control worker to shoot a cat. "I can't imagine he has a good explanation for this," Mersereau said. "He shouldn't be doing this job anymore. We hesitate to think how many other animals may have fallen prey to him or his staff." If the cat was causing problems, there were other, more humane ways of removing it, Mersereau said. For example, most animal control workers carry "catch poles," a long pipe with a loop at the end for guiding an animal, or traps that capture animals without hurting them. "There's always a humane answer," Mersereau said. "The use of excessive force is never acceptable." Baggett's 15-year tenure at Animal Control, including 11 years as its director, has been mixed. His personnel file is filled with strong performance reviews and merit pay raises, including a 3.4 percent raise in January that brought his salary to $45,388. Evaluations describe Baggett as a "highly respected" director who ran a difficult division smoothly. "The Animal Control Division, as you know, can be the center of some very emotional discussions, because of the very nature of the business," former Public Safety Director Tad Stone wrote in a September 1998 memo recommending a raise for Baggett. "It has been my observation that Mr. Baggett treats each and every case in the same manner and always leans toward caution and what he feels to be the best course of action to protect the public and the county." But Baggett also has been disciplined twice. He received a written reprimand in 2000 after a highly publicized incident in which a quarantined dog escaped from its cage at Animal Control. As a result, the 2-year-old girl that had been bitten by the dog several days earlier had to take rabies shots as a precaution. Poliseno wrote that Baggett's failure to "launch and maintain an exhaustive search to locate this animal delayed the capture of this dog." Baggett also received a verbal reprimand in 1989, when he was still a senior animal control officer, for bringing a dog home temporarily instead of taking it directly to the kennel. The dog escaped, according to the disciplinary paperwork. "Our policy does allow for consideration of prior disciplinary action," Petitt said. -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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