Ex-mayor reaches plea deal over keeping dog

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jul 17, 2008

ALICE, Texas (AP) -- A former small-town South Texas mayor accused of secretly keeping her neighbors' dog after telling them the pet died has reached a plea deal.

Grace Saenz-Lopez pleaded no contest Tuesday to filing a false police report, a misdemeanor. Under terms of the deal, she'll pay a $300 fine and serve 48 hours of community service and two years of probation.

Saenz-Lopez, the former mayor of Alice, had claimed the Shih Tzu named Puddles died last year while she was pet-sitting for neighbors Rudy Gutierrez and Shelly Cavazos. Three months later, however, a relative of the neighbors saw the dog, renamed Panchito, at a grooming business.

Saenz-Lopez insisted that Gutierrez and Cavazos had neglected the animal.