The Canadian man accused of stealing a flamingo named Peachy and injuring it in a hotel room on the Las Vegas Strip has paid a significant price after being charged, his attorney said Tuesday.
Mitchell Fairbarn, 33, of Ontario, is facing four counts of cruelty to animals. Authorities say he entered the flamingo habitat at the Flamingo resort in the early morning hours of March 3, took Peachy back to his room and harmed it.
In court Tuesday, Fairbarn’s defense attorney Josh Tomsheck asked District Court Judge Tara Clark Newberry to ease some of the restrictions placed on Fairbarn as he awaits an Oct. 12 trial. Tomsheck said Fairbarn has had to stay in the United States while on high-level electronic monitoring and surrender his passport after posting a $12,000 bail.
As a result, he has not seen his minor children in months. Fairbarn, who has no prior criminal history, was unable to attend his father’s funeral. His business, which employs 15 people, is suffering greatly, the attorney said.
“It has had very dire consequences to him personally and professionally,” Tomsheck said. “He wants the full story to come out at trial.”
Tomsheck wrote in a court motion that Fairbarn makes roughly $100,000 a year in Canadian dollars, or $71,000 a year in U.S. currency.
”What we want him to be able to do is go home and to address the issues with his business and his family so that he can come back to trial knowing those things are taken care of,” Tomsheck said.
Clark County prosecutor William Rowles opposed relaxing the terms of Fairbarn’s release, saying if Fairbarn was allowed home he would have little incentive to return to Las Vegas.
“I am sympathetic to his family situation but he committed a crime,” Rowles said. “I know he is presumed innocent but trial is only 60 days away.”
Clark Newberry denied the defense attorney’s request, stating the restrictions were put in place because “he is a flight risk because he has no ties to the community. He is not a citizen of the United States.”
The Metropolitan Police Department said in an arrest report that Fairbarn’s cellphone contained photos and videos of him torturing the flamingo in his hotel room by choking it and throwing it to the floor while laughing. In one video, he choked a flamingo’s neck as the bird screamed and cried, records indicated.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
