BRIDGEPORT – A former Fairfield elected official, accused of torturing cats and dogs with chemicals and boiling water, was sentenced Thursday to 17 months in prison.
Raymond Neuberger, 40, who served on the town’s Representative Town Meeting for several years and unsuccessfully ran for state representative in 2016, pleaded guilty under a plea bargain to two counts of malicious wounding and one count of second-degree threatening.
He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Reid to six years, suspended after he serves 17 months in prison and followed by four years of probation.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Assistant State’s Attorney Andres Bermudez-Hallstrom told the judge that Neuberger “maliciously and intentionally killed Gem, a cat, by covering Gem in bleach and maliciously and intentionally wounded another cat, Pearl.”
He said the wounds to Pearl resulted in the cat’s tail having to be amputated.
“Mr. Neuberger is what he does, and he is a serial animal abuser,” state animal advocate Kenneth Bernhard told the judge. “Perhaps there are education programs or therapeutic opportunities ahead that might improve his character but for the moment, and in this instance, a severe sentence of confinement, where he can’t hurt other innocent animals, is appropriate, even required.”
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
As a condition of the probation the judge ordered Neuberger not to own any pets in the future and to have no unsupervised contact with domestic animals.
Neuberger had also been charged with threatening the Fairfield police officers investigating the case, telling them he was going to burn them with chemicals, the prosecutor told the judge.
In all three animal abuse cases, police said Neuberger injured pets owned by women he was dating.
A former roommate of one of the women told police Neuberger abused Pearl in February 2022, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The roommates shared ownership of Pearl when the one woman began dating Neuberger in November 2021, the affidavit stated.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
Pearl suffered severe burns while alone with Neuberger in February 2022, the affidavit stated. Pearl appeared to have been burned so severely that the cat required extensive treatment, including having her tail amputated, according to the affidavit.
Fairfield police said their investigation uncovered Pearl’s extensive injuries, including that she had been burned by a chemical “down to the muscle” on her abdomen, the affidavit stated.
