Saugus woman ordered to have no animals found with puppy

LYNN – A Saugus woman ordered to have no animals after admitting to taping her dog’s mouth shut was held for a probation surrender hearing after police reported responding to the defendant’s home for a domestic incident and finding a puppy.A judge did not, however, revoke the defendant’s bail on an open case where she is accused of kicking a puppy.Stephani Wadman, 22, of 73 B Ballard St. rear, Saugus, appeared at Lynn District Court Thursday and was taken into custody on a warrant for an alleged violation of probation.Wadman admitted Sept. 5 to sufficient facts for a finding of guilty to a charge of animal cruelty stemming from a Nov. 12 incident in which Saugus Police responded to the report of a dog that was possibly hit by a car. Officers found a 2-year-old, brown-and-white female pit bull with its mouth taped shut with 4 ? feet of electrical tape and lying down in the street. Wadman told officers the dog was hers and that she had taped its mouth shut because it got into the trash and because it bites, police and witnesses said.Judge Ellen Flatley ordered the charges be continued without a finding of either guilty or not guilty for 18 months of supervised probation. Probation conditions included that Wadman not be allowed to have any animals and be subject to random inspections by animal control or animal-welfare agents.Wadman had meanwhile been charged with animal cruelty in a separate incident after a neighbor reported seeing Wadman kick a puppy on July 30. Wadman denied the charge and said she was not even home at the time. A judge also ordered that Wadman not be allowed to have any animals and be subject to random inspections by animal control or animal-welfare agents.The alleged probation violation occurred Sept. 26 when police responded to the Ballard Street home on a domestic incident and found Wadman outside, Essex Assistant District Attorney Justin Edwards told the court. Wadman said she wanted to go inside and get some clothes before she left the home, and officers accompanying her in the house saw a small, brown pit bull puppy in a cage, Edwards said.”She first told the officer her boyfriend was trying to get her arrested,” Edwards told the court. “She eventually told (the officer) that the court told her it was OK to have animals.”Edwards said in court Thursday that investigators learned the condition remained in effect and the puppy was thus “a clear violation of both the open case and the probation case.”Edwards asked that Wadman’s bail be revoked on the open case.The probation department also requested that Wadman be held without bail pending a probation final surrender hearing, also citing the condition that Wadman not have any animals.But defense attorney Joseph MacDonald said Wadman was not living at the home and did not own the dog. The dog was her boyfriend’s, with whom she had an on-again-off-again relationship, and she was never in the house at the same time as the puppy, MacDonald said his client reported.In fact, Wadman said she didn’t even know there was a warrant out for her arrest, MacDonald told the court. She came into court for a hearing on whether to extend a temporary restraining order granted to her boyfriend because of the domestic incident. (The order was extended a year.)”If she’s not living there, why does she need to get clothes out of the house?” Judge Joseph Jennings asked.Jennings found probable cause to hold Wadman without bail pending a final probation hearing. He denied the motion to revoke the defendant’s bail on the open case.Wadman started asking “What?” and crying as she was led to lockup. She is scheduled to return to court for a final surrender hearing Oct. 31.