NEWS - WHTA Director Arrested on Sex Charges

As if violating the HPA isn't bad enough...

J.W. "Dick" Peebles was arrested on Monday and charged with sexual abuse of minors. Click here for the full article. I copied and pasted the article in full below.

Peebles was elected to be on the slate of directors for WHTA in 2010, and he is currently on suspension until 2012 for a violation with WHTA. I talked about this in this post. Peebles was also elected Trainer of the Year at the Celebration in 2006 and is in the Celebration Hall of Fame.

Of course, in our court system, people are innocent until proven guilty. But the kind of sexual acts he's being accused of are sick, and I doubt very seriously that he'll be proven innocent. So, I'm going to voice my opinion here about what I believe has happened.

I think this is an absolute classic example of how animal abuse leads to people abuse. People who have no respect for one type of life usually don't have respect for other types. A man who kicks his dog is just as likely to kick his kid. We can look at various serial murderers and see that they "started" on animals (Jeffrey Dahmer being the most prominent). And while Peebles isn't a murderer, he most likely abused animals since he violated the HPA, so the abuse got extended to teenagers. This is yet another reason why violations to the HPA need to be taken seriously.

WHTA, TWHBEA, and others who support Peebles: I hope you take a long, hard look at what he's done here and how this will affect your industry. Start rethinking who you choose for your representatives, and start keeping abusers out of your positions of power.

**********

Trainer faces sex charges

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

By BRIAN MOSELY ~ bmosely@t-g.com

Shelbyville Times-Gazette

A member of the Celebration Hall of Fame was arrested and accused of sexual offenses involving teenage girls.

J.W. "Dick" Peebles, 61, of Holt Avenue, Shelbyville, was arrested Monday and charged with two counts of sexual battery, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor by electronic means and solicitation of a minor.

He was released on a blanket bond of $5,000 and is due in Bedford County General Sessions Court on Jan. 26.

Very few details about the case could be disclosed to the T-G, Capt. Becky Hord of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department said, to protect the three female victims.

A complaint had been filed by one of the parents, Hord said, and the charges involved separate incidents that allegedly occurred at Peebles' farm. Peebles is a horse trainer.

Hord stated that one of the alleged incidents happened during the spring of 2010, in which the victim was "offended by it and refused to go back."

However, other incidents allegedly occurred in December, with Hord stating that one of the victims informed a parent, who then alerted authorities.

It was later learned that "the same kind of behavior was happening with all three girls, just at different times," Hord said.