Westminster Man Found Guilty of Torturing Kitten

As a group of cat lovers looked on, a jury Thursday found a Westminster man guilty of torturing his kitten by hurling it at a wall and nearly drowning it in a tub of water.

The felony verdict capped a weeklong animal-cruelty trial anxiously followed by friends of Henley the cat, whose beating last year generated outrage from both neighbors and animal activists across Orange County.

“Somebody’s got to stand up for the kitty, and that’s why we’re here,” said Claudette Tarra, an Orange resident who owns five cats. “It’s been a difficult trial to listen to. It just makes you want to stand up and yell.”

The case stems from an August incident that witnesses described as horrific.

Neighbors who had heard an animal crying told police that they watched as Timothy Alan Freeman, 45, slapped the cat, dunked it in water and then hurled it against a concrete wall. Officers found the cat in a cupboard at Freeman’s home, barely breathing and comatose. Henley was eventually nursed back to health and placed in a new home, where his owner describes him as doing fine.

Tarra, one of a dozen cat lovers who attended the trial, burst into tears of happiness after the verdict. Others pumped their fists in victory. For them, the case was something of a cause celebre, coming a week after a San Jose man was convicted of felony animal cruelty for throwing a bichon frise named Leo onto a busy roadway after getting into a fender-bender with the dog’s owner.

Freeman sat pensively as the verdict was read, a tattered red Bible on the table before him. A physician’s assistant, Freeman faces up to three years in state prison.

During the trial, defense lawyer William Bruzzo argued that the abuse never occurred and that Freeman was merely washing the kitten. He also suggested that the accusations were the result of tensions between Freeman and his neighbors.

“This appears to be part of a neighborhood feud that boiled over,” Bruzzo said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Alison Gyves, however, said that was clearly false. “He could never explain how a wounded cat wound up in the cupboard,” Gyves said.

Freeman is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 3 and remains free on $10,000 bail. Gyves had requested that Judge William L. Evans order Freeman held and remove his pet dog from his home, but the judge refused.

“I haven’t seen anything in this case that tells me he’s a threat to the community,” Evans said.

The judge, however, said he wants Freeman’s dog examined by an animal control officer and said he would order it removed from the house if there are signs of abuse.

After Thursday’s verdict, Henley’s new owner breathed a sigh of relief. Bridget Simec said Henley has grown into a healthy 11-pound cat, and only his nose and tail tell the story of his troubled early months: They are both permanently bent.

He was clearly living the life he would prefer to live.

“He’s great,” Simec said. “He’s lying in the sun right now.”