RELATED: Ohio outlaws sex with animals
The incidents leading to the charges happened on Dec. 20, according to records.
The girl was walking home from the bus stop just before 4 p.m. when Pettit pulled his pants down and showed her his genitals as he stood near a red truck along a fence on South Galloway, according to a police report. The girl then went home and told her parents.
The girl’s parents also told officers that she walks home from the bus stop every day, and Pettit watches her, making her feel threatened, the report said.
Shortly after Pettit exposed himself to the girl, the suspect lured two dogs behind a garage along the same fence line and committed the sex act, according to the report. The suspect denied committing the act with the dogs, but their owners had taken photos of the incident during the act and gave them to police, the report said.
RELATED: First person charged with bestiality in Ohio pleads not guilty
Pettit is due back in court on March 5 for his next hearing.
Until recently Ohio was one of the few states with no bestiality ban on the books. Lawmakers finally approved a bill banning sex with animals in December 2016.
Ohio’s law, which also bans selling animals for sex, took effect last March.
Ohio’s first case under that new law is in Cleveland, where Scott Turner 48, pleaded not guilty last week to a second-degree misdemeanor charge of having sexual contact with an animal. Turner is accused of having oral sex with a dog .
He faces a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail and a $750 fine.
Even with the law in place, animal welfare experts say it can be difficult to get convictions in these the cases.
“Just like children who can’t say what happened to (them), it makes it very difficult to investigate these cases,” said Mark Kumpf, director of the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center, in an earlier interview.
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