Cameron Casey under investigation for animal cruelty in Craighead County also has local charges

A man charged with involvement in cashing stolen checks using an identification card belonging to another person appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court/Criminal Division Monday (January 12).
Forty-six-year-old Cameron Tyler Casey of Lake City, a small town in Craighead County, pled not guilty to the charges against him. He is accused of going to a local bank on September 11, 2021, where he attempted to cash a forged check made out for almost $430.

For a number of months, the male suspect who had attempted to cash the check remained unidentified and the search for him was unsuccessful. The search was made more difficult since Casey living in Craighead County in East Arkansas. The case was opened on January 12, 2022 and the warrant was not marked served until January 5, the day he appeared in court.

As the investigation continued, more reports of attempts to cash forged checks came in. On December 6, 2021, the owner of an Izard County business reported a forged check had been used to purchase items in his store.

The check was written on the account of the same victim in the September 11 incident. The victim said he had hired a female named Shelby Dixon to help him and his wife move from a fire damaged apartment to another unit. It was about that time that the victim became aware of purchases made on his account in Mountain Home.

Investigators interviewed Dixon and she was reported to have admitted stealing checks from the victim and using several of them. She Casey had “convinced” her to do what she did.

According to electronic court records, no criminal charges were filed against Dixon in Baxter County but she was charged in Izard County for her part in stealing, forging and passing checks. She was sentenced to 72 months probation with a judicial transfer to one of the Community Correction Centers in the state for addiction treatment. Drug-related cases have been opened on her in the past.

An identification card that was used during the check cashing incidents was traced to a man who had lost the card at a local pharmacy in his area around the time of the September 11 attempt to cash a forged check.

Casey is charged with forgery and criminal impersonation. He is being held in the Baxter County Detention Center with bond set at $10,000.

According to court records, Casey has had a significant number of contacts with law enforcement in his home county.

Reports on KAIT-TV in Jonesboro say that Casey, who had been the animal control officer in Lake City at the time, is under investigation by the Craighead County Sheriff’s office for animal cruelty after he was seen on video taken by a security camera in October kicking a small dog across the backyard of a home.

The animal’s owner said he was to be out of town and had hired a dog sitter. Before the sitter arrived, the owner got an alert on his home security system that his pet had “escaped.”

He said he called animal control in Lake City and asked if they would secure the dog and that he would pay whatever fees and other charges that might be incurred when he returned.

When Casey arrived, the dog, described by one source as a Chihuahua, was in the front yard.

Casey is shown using treats to get the dog into the fenced backyard. The dog was reported to be “reluctant” to be picked up.

After getting the dog into the backyard, Casey is shown picking the small animal up and the dog appeared to nip at him.
At that point, Casey is shown aggressively kicking the small dog for a considerable distance across the yard.

The owner cut his trip short and returned to Lake City to check on his pet whose name was “Hank.” The animal appeared to have gotten out of the back yard again and was killed by a car before the owner could get back home, according to the KAIT-TV report.

The pet’s owner talked with Lake City’s mayor and was told Casey was no longer the city’s animal control officer.
According to media reports, Casey was hired by Lake City as a general laborer in March 2024 and at some point in time became animal control officer.

City residents have lodged complaints with city government previous that Casey had been shooting dogs and carrying a .22-caliber rifle in the truck used by animal control.

TROUBLE IN TRAFFIC COURTS

Casey has also appeared in traffic courts in Jonesboro and other locations in Craighead County on numerous occasions.
Court records show he has had 56 counts of traffic-related violations charged to him.

The charges include failure to pay fines, contempt of court, expired tags, failure to register a vehicle, driving on a suspended license, failure to appear in court, having no liability insurance and inattentive driving.

In one Lake City case, Casey was charged with 34 counts of contempt for not paying fines and in a Jonesboro court in 2020, he was charged with his fourth offense of having no liability insurance.

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