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One Felony Charge Dropped Against Former Fireman; Still Faces Sex Abuse, Misdemeanor Charges
November 11, 2010
A felony grand theft charge against a former Century volunteer fireman has been dropped in a case involving the abandonment of three dogs.
Dustin Ryan Burkett, 28, of Century, still faces one felony count of lewd and lascivious battery on a victim 12 to 15 years of age and misdemeanor charges of abandonment of animals and obstruction of justice. He has pleaded not guilty on all charges.
Burkett’s sexual abuse charge stems from a 2009 incident in which a 15 year old girl told deputies she had intercourse with Burkett at Lake Stone Campground in Century. The encounter, according to the victim, took place on or about March 28, 2009. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office received information on April 13, 2009, that the relationship had taken place, and the victim was interviewed at her school on April 28, 2009.
Burkett retained an attorney and refused to meet with the Sheriff’s Office investigators, according to the warrant affidavit.
In an unrelated incident, Burkett was charged with allegedly abandoning three dogs that were reported to be “rescued” by the Century Station of Escambia Fire Rescue in August.
The Century Station of Escambia-Rescue responded to a reported motor vehicle accident on Sunday, August 22 on North Century Boulevard just south of Tedder Road. They discovered that there was no accident; rather, a motorist had stopped after seeing the three dogs nearly in the road. Both the fire department and the Sheriff’s Office requested that Escambia County Animal Control respond, but the agency refused stating that it did not meet their call-out criteria.
Rather than leave the dogs beside the road, they were taken back to the Century firehouse as firefighters worked to determine what to do with the canines. According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office incident report, the Burkett told his follow firefighters to, “Put them in my truck. I have a pen at my house”.
A Century Volunteer Fire Department officer emailed NorthEscambia.com that night, providing photographs of the dogs and asking for help in find the dogs’ owner. NorthEscambia.com published that story Monday, August 23.
After the article was published on NorthEscambia.com, the dogs’ owner contacted the fire department. According to the ECSO, the owner confronted Burkett at the Century fire station the next evening and asked the whereabouts of his dogs. Burkett according to the incident report, “refused to respond and acted like he didn’t know what (the victim) was talking about”.
The dogs’ owner then went to the Burkett’s residence on Highway 4A and spoke with the suspect’s father. The father was helpful but said that he did not see the dogs or know where his son had put them, the victim told deputies.
Burkett told a fire department officer that he had found a good home for the dogs in Walnut Hill, and the officer contact NorthEscambia.com with the information. Based on that information from the fire department, a followup story was published by NorthEscambia.com on Thursday, August 26, reporting that a home had been found for the dogs.
On Thursday, deputies met with both Burkett and his father. Burkett told deputies, according to their report, that he had given the dogs to a man he met. He told a deputy that he did not know how to contact the man and that the deputy should call his friend. The friend told the deputy by phone that “he did not want to be involved and that he was not going to tell a lie to keep (the suspect) out of trouble”. He said that Burkett contacted him Sunday night and “asked him to cover for him if asked the whereabouts of the missing dogs”. The friend told the deputy that Burkett told him that he took the dogs and dropped them off at the intersection of North Pine Barren Road and Highway 168.
When contacted by phone, the deputy said Burkett admitted to putting the dogs out of his vehicle on Pine Barren Road on Wednesday. About 30 minutes later, Burkett called the suspect again to advise him that he was going to face charges over the dogs. “He advised me that he didn’t kill them or sell them and that he put them out on Sunday,” Deputy David Bashore wrote in his report.
The dogs were found a few days later on Highway 4, not far from Northview High School. They were determined to be in good condition by a veterinarian and returned the owner.
Burkett has been suspended from Escambia Fire Rescue. He is the son of the Century District Fire Chief Reggie Burkett, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Pictured top: Former Century firefighter Dustin Ryan Burkett. Pictured top inset: These cellphone photos show three dogs found the evening of August 22 on North Century Boulevard just south of Tedder Road. The firefighter partially in the photograph is not suspected of any wrongdoing. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
19 Responses to “One Felony Charge Dropped Against Former Fireman; Still Faces Sex Abuse, Misdemeanor Charges”
I guess most eveyones grand parents were sex offenders. They usually were married
by the time they were 16. What changed?
At what point did we decide to legislate sexuality. Was it at the point where parents had no control over their daughters. The cops will never ask why was the girl at this place without parental supervision. Or even ask the parents did you know where your daughter was at that time. A girl 15 or younger could come to your house in the middle of the night crawl in the window of your 16 yr old son’s room and he becomes a registered sex offenser for the rest of his life. And she moves on to the next boyfiend. All parents of boys please!!!!! look at these laws and try to educate your sons.
I would just say I am so sorry for
Ryan.How ever his parents GREAT people,
so until you have been in those shoes
you cannot understand what they are going thru!GOD HELP THEM ALL!!
to be fair to this man and to be ACCURATE, a “pediphile”, according to the INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASE (ICD) and, the “psychiatric bible” “DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL of MENTAL DISORDERS” (DSM) is as follows: the term “pedophilia” denotes someone who has sexual urges/fantacies (whether acted upon or not) directed SPECIFICALLY towards early PRE-pubescent children—> THERE IS NO KNOWN CURE……..now, those who direct their sexual urges towards mid to late pubescent adolescents (between the ages of 15-19) are classified as “ephebophilic”- so, its highly improper to attach the incurable “pedophile” label onto this fellow- (legally and socially)
REGARDING:
“we need to care for ALL living creatures”
Fleas? Gnats? Bedbugs? Horseflies?
Dogs?–yes, certainly. but all?
David for limits
how did this guy EVER get to be a fireman? He must have pulled the wool over someone’s eyes…what a DISGRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yes the issue with the girl is important but the dogs can not speak for themselves therefore is our duty to do right by them…why take them if you had no intentions of holding them for the owner or taking them to The Humane Society ?..I think Burkett should face some sort of discipline action for what he did..it was very cruel and he should pay for it..we need to care for ALL living creatures
jUST ME….you said a mouth full….to bad ppl can’t read!!!
As for the ones who were mad because we had the audacity to be discussing
the dog issue. Nobody said the young girl rape wasn’t important…those charges
were not dropped or changed. WE were discussing the changes on the charges, and those were on the dog issue.
We want this bad apple to fry on ALL charges if found guilty…..
Young girls don’t have a say in who they want to have sex with.
Thats because the law and most parents have determIned that young girls
are air heads and need to be protected from guys who would take advantage
of the fact that they are young and dumb when they themselves are old enough
to know better…..
WE CALL THEM PEDIFILES!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRr/
Alabamagirl on November 12th, 2010 8:25 am Said
“how do we know that she isnt the one who wanted to have sex with him and she got mad when he realized it was wrong and wouldnt do it again and thats what made her tell adults that she had sex with him because she got mad or maybe her boyfriend found out and was break up with her.”
You must be a young girl as well speaking like this. It doesn’t matter a hill of beans how much she possibly wanted to do this. The point is this is a grown man, which should know the consequences of having sex with a underage girl. Obviously someone is lying here and given the fact that # 1 he lied to the dog owner. # 2 He lied to the sherriffs office. # 3 He lied to a fire officer. Then I question his believability in this matter.
Young girls sleep with older guys because they think its cool. If u put an undercover teenager in a high school or even a middle school over half of them would admit to having sex with a man alot older then they are or that they would. I know girls who were 15 and having sex with men ranging from 21 to 30 and go to school the next day bragging. how do we know that she isnt the one who wanted to have sex with him and she got mad when he realized it was wrong and wouldnt do it again and thats what made her tell adults that she had sex with him because she got mad or maybe her boyfriend found out and was break up with her.
To■huh
Go read some of the comments from the earlier articles. In my opinion nothing was done to him because of who he is or should I say who his daddy is. When the parents found out they called the cops. They wanted something done in 2009, but was told that nothing could be done. They want justice for their daughter, and to keep him from hurting another underage girl.
Without DNA evidence and lack of any witness its just her word against his.Also, this is a problem
“The encounter, according to the victim, took place on or about March 28, 2009. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office received information on April 13, 2009, that the relationship had taken place, and the victim was interviewed at her school on April 28, 2009.”
Why was nothing done since April of 2009? Why did nothing come up until the dog issue? His lawyer is going to have a field day with this case
Its almost as if this is just being made up to ruin his name, otherwise a police report and arrest would have been made in april of 2009
GLAD TO HEAR THAT CHARGE IS DROPPED, HOPEFULLY JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GIRL AND INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY WILL STAND IF THIS YOUNG MAN IS INNOCENT AND IF NOT THEN HE WILL BE PROSECUTED, THANK GOD FOR LAWS
Okay enought people,have we forgotten that a 15 year old girl had sex with this man? where is the uproar over that? or have animals lives become more important the humans.I sure the girl did and still is suffering over the incident.
Charges relating to the mistreatment of animals is serious, yes, BUT thank Goodness he still has to answer to the the charges that HE HAD SEX WITH AN UNDERAGE GIRL!!!!!! That is more important.
unchainyourdog…..
I’m from Iowa…..
Guess that makes both of us outsiders…lol
Do you run a rescue?
Horrific…yes, I figured that out soon after I moved here from VA. That’s why I’m glad the criminal charges were actually filed. Regardless of how folks feel about animals, it’s still illegal to abandon dogs and cats.
I believe that the abandonment charges were misdemeanor from the get go, at least according to the Clerk of the Court web site. Thank you Judge and State Attorney.
Felony. Recharge him. Somebody take HIM out and abandon HIM, somewhere in the North Dakota badlands or someplace. That’s the only proper justice for his behavior. Oh…and then go get him about a month later when his ribs are showing.
unchainyourdog….
actually they have dropped the felony charges on him about the dogs and
only the misdemeanor charges remain on the him on the dogs.
most here don’t care about dogs….they have been trained from the time
they can stand to shoot and kill small animals…..so the men here
are HARD…..they need to learn to first love an animal before they learn
to shoot and kill a bunny rabbit and de-glove it…..but for most of these men
TENDERNESS IS UNMANLY!
I’m very glad to hear that the animal abandonment charges still stand. Having worked in animal rescue for 30 years, I’ve witnessed first hand the horrible shape many, if not, most, abandoned animals end up in. Those are only the lucky ones we find. Many more will never be found and die a lonely, agonizing death.
Pet abandonment is illegal.