Dennys Jose Luque is a 44 year old man from Oklahoma, who came into our community and committed a heinous crime. Around 8pm on a Sunday night, he decided to strap 13 pound weights to his german shepard and repeatedly threw a ball into a lake for the animal to fetch until it could not resurface for air anymore. Luque and witnesses searched for the dog for about five minutes before Luque himself gave up. He fled the scene and left the dog's body underwater by the boat ramp, while the witnesses continued to search, to no avail. The dog's body was recovered hours later. This man murdered his pet, left it to the alligators in Lake Harris, and showed no remorse or effort to retrieve the body. He claims he needed to tire the dog out because it stays in his truck while he is working during they day, and they both sleep in the truck at night. He actually said “these things happen.” This is no excuse and that is not the case, if you are homeless you should probably give your dog to a person or family who is in a better situation to care for it, and avoid alligator infested lakes at night when you choose to strap weights to your dog. It was a misdemeanor for strapping the weights to the dog, and a felony for purposely sending the dog into the water with the weights on. Dennys Jose Luque is not from this small, close-knit community, and he needs to understand that this is not acceptable in Leesburg or in Lake County and its surrounding areas. It is important that he recieves the maximum penalties for both the felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges if he is found guilty, so that this will never happen here again!
His first court date is APRIL 23, 2018 at 8:30am!!!!!!

Arrest information:
https://www.lcso.org/inmates/mugshot_booking_detail.php?bookingnumber=18002113

Newpaper articles: 

http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20180326/owner-charged-after-dog-drowns-wearing-weighted-belt

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-dog-animal-cruelty-leesburg-20180326-story.html