FREDERICKTOWN — A Fredericktown veterinarian is charged with having sex with an animal and two counts of domestic violence against people after a March 31 incident at the family’s farm on Knox Lake Road.
Dr. Phillip R. Dilts, 66, entered not guilty pleas this week in Mount Vernon Municipal Court to the misdemeanor charges, which include allegations he had sexual conduct with a Shetland Pony and later injured his wife, Brenda, 60, and his daughter, Hannah, 24.
During a phone interview late Thursday afternoon, Dilts said the allegations regarding the horse, made by his wife and daughter, are not true and are the result of a divorce he and his wife are going through.
“It never happened,” he said. “I will be exonerated. It will just take some time.”
After spending Sunday night in the Knox County Jail, Dilts was released on a $75 bond after his arraignment on Monday, pending future court appearances.
His veterinarian license status is listed as inactive, according to the Veterinary Medical Board. Dilts is/was not employed in any Fredericktown or Knox County veterinary practice, according to sources.
The two women obtained temporary protection orders against Dilts from the court.
The domestic violence charges are first-degree misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The allegation involving the horse is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $750 fine.
Law enforcement officials went to the family farm at 18436 Knox Lake Road outside Fredericktown on Easter evening at 8:09 p.m., responding to a 9-1-1 call made by Hannah Dilts.
She advised dispatchers her father had been caught having sex with a horse, had access to guns and was threatening to shoot himself and others.
After taking Phillip Dilts into custody without incident at the scene and placing him into a cruiser, deputies interviewed the two women.
Deputies said Brenda Dilts had a red mark on her neck from where her husband allegedly put his arm around her neck. Hannah Dilts had scrapes on her hand after reportedly trying to stop her father from assaulting her mother. She told deputies her father had been drinking vodka.
Brenda Dilts told deputies she had gone to the barn on the property to use a hose to put water into a trough. She saw what she believed was her husband having sex with the pony.
She told deputies her husband “tucked himself back in” and questioned what she was doing there. She said, “Oh my gosh, what are you doing?” and ran to her daughter, who was in a nearby van.
Phillip Dilts then allegedly told his wife his life was over and that he was going to shoot himself.
A disagreement allegedly became physical when the two women tried to prevent him from going into the house and down to the basement where firearms were located, according to statements provided to deputies.
Deputy Brandon Feeney said he interviewed Phillip Dilts at the scene and advised him of the animal violations alleged by his wife.
“Phillip replied, ‘mmhmm,’ ‘about to,’ ‘I wasn’t.’ Phillip advised that he hadn’t done it yet (and that) he was humiliated by his family. Phillip said, ‘pretty humiliating, what could be worse?’ Phillip denied making any threats toward his family,” Feeney wrote in his report.
Dilts told a different story to Knox Pages, denying the animal allegations.
“We had a sick horse and I was waiting for it to eat its oats,” he said. “I was standing behind it and I took it by the tail and was turning it when my wife looked through an opening in the barn.”
He said his wife accused him of having sex with the pony and ran away. Dilts said his wife told his daughter what she thought she had seen and they encountered him in the driveway.
“We are in the midst of a divorce that has gone south,” Phillip Dilts said of his 25-year marriage. “My wife wants it all. She wants me out. She wants the new house.”
Dilts said he has been a veterinarian for 13 years after becoming “the oldest graduate of The Ohio State School of Veterinary Medicine.”
He complained about spending the night in the county jail on “suicide watch.”
Dilts said he was forced to take off all his clothes, put on a smock and sleep on a ledge with a thin vinyl pad mattress.
“The lights are on 24/7. It’s inhumane,” he said. “It would make a normal person suicidal.”
He admitted to telling deputies that he would harm himself if he had done what his wife alleged.
“If I (had) f***** a horse, I would shoot myself in the head,” he said.
Dilts has no serious past criminal offenses on his record, according to Mount Vernon Municipal Court records.
Other than a few minor traffic tickets, Dilts was convicted in 2010 in Mount Vernon Municipal Court for illegally hunting deer with a shotgun during muzzle-loader season. He received a suspended sentence and was fined for the infraction.