Caldwell jailed after dog incident

A Cherry Lane man will serve 10 days behind bars for attacking a meter reader who he said kicked at his dog.

The defendant, Brian Caldwell, was ordered to serve 10 days of an 11-month, 29-day sentence, perform 40 hours public service work and have no contact with the victim, Aaron Wrisner, on the charge of simple assault.

Caldwell faces the jail time for swinging a stick at the city employee who was in his yard reading his water meter. The meter reader said he was hit in the arm by the stick before he retreated to his truck. Caldwell, who told the Southern Standard he never hit the meter reader, said he confronted Wrisner because the city employee swung at one of his dogs with a metal meter key. Wrisner said the dog attacked him and he has torn trousers to prove it.

The meter reader incident, along with other incidents involving two of Caldwell’s dogs, sparked a number of court actions which included a $27,000 defamation of character judgment against the Caldwells for signs they posted in their yard regarding their neighbor, Kenny Knight.

One of their dogs reportedly attacked Knight’s 11-year-old daughter as she rode her bike on Cherry Lane, a charge Caldwell still faces. He also faces stalking charges, to which he entered a not guilty plea this week, for bothering the Knight family.

On top of the criminal action, the Caldwells are still involved in an action to keep their dogs, a boxer and a pitbull, alive after the city court ruled them put down as menaces to the community. The dogs are two of a handful still being held at the soon-to-be-closed animal shelter.