Volunteer fireman faces battery charge

CENTURY, Florida (WALA) - A volunteer fireman from Century, Florida is behind bars, facing charges of animal abandonment and lewd and lascivious battery on a 15-year-old girl.

Dustin Burkett, 28, was arrested Tuesday. The Escambia County Sheriff's Office said on August 22, the fire department found a group of dogs on the side of the road. They said Burkett kept them, wouldn't return them to the owner, then abandoned them on the side of another road.

"It appears he was maybe trying to keep the dogs or sell the dogs, something like that, and when the jig was up, everybody found out he had the dogs, he abandoned them on the side of the road," Sgt. Ted Roy with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said.

Burkett has been charged with grand theft, animal abandonment and resisting an officer.

But things did not get any better for Burkett.

Burkett also faces charges for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in March 2009. The girl's family pressed charges on Tuesday, September 7.

The arrest report says the girl admitted the relationship to officials but Burkett refused to talk, instead he got an attorney.

Burkett is the son of the district chief of the Century Volunteer Fire Department, but no one was available to comment.

Burkett was released from the jail on Wednesday.

The case will now be turned over to the state attorney's office for further review.