A rural Springville man, Mark A. Barker, 54, who resides in Blue Sky North, was arrested on Sunday by Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy Alan Jackson. A warrant had been issued for his arrest when Barker failed to appear in court for a pre-trial conference last week. The case pending against Barker involves his dog that allegedly had not been immunized against rabies when it bit an REMC lineman.

The dog bite incident was investigated by Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy Terry Wade after a call came into the sheriff’s department back on November 8, 2017.

Barker’s dog was reported to have bitten the lineman when two linemen were on a service call at the residence to check on possible theft of utilities.

While there, they encountered dogs in the yard they said were friendly at first, but when Barker came out and began yelling at the linemen, a black dog then bit one of the men in the upper thigh, puncturing jeans and leaving a puncture wound. The two linemen then traveled to a clinic for medical treatment for the wound.

During the investigation, Deputy Wade went to Barker’s residence on more than one occasion, and spoke with Barker and other family members, as well as a veterinary clinic where he was told the dogs received care.

Wade took photos of the dogs at the residence and both linemen identified the same dog as the one who bit.

Wade reported that records showed the dog that allegedly bit the lineman had not received any vaccines since 2009 and was not immunized for rabies at the time of the incident.

In a case filed against Barker in January, he was summoned to appear in court in February. He was charged with harboring a non-immunized dog, a Class B misdemeanor. He was supposed to be in court again on Wednesday, May 16, but when he failed to appear, the warrant was issued.

When he was booked in to jail, his bond was first set at $5,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed.

Then today (Monday, May 21), the court approved Barker’s release on his own recognizance and ordered him to be in court again on June 13.