A 36-year-old Dracut man has been formally charged with animal cruelty in connection with the death of his roommate’s dog last year.

Anthony Segnini was arraigned last week in Middlesex Superior Court, where he pleaded not guilty to the charge of animal cruelty.

The charge arose from an alleged incident that occurred on December 11, 2023. Dracut Police saying Officers responded to a home on Sunset Road for a report of possible animal cruelty after returning from work they found their dog Seamus, an 8-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, dead in their park, according to court records. The 8-pound dog was covered in a blanket, blood and feces. The woman allegedly found blood, urine and feces on the carpet and walls of the living room.

Prosecutors said the woman took the dog to Wignall Animal Hospital, where it was pronounced dead. A necropsy later determined that the dog died of severe blunt force trauma from a blow to the head and also suffered bone fractures, a collapsed lung and other injuries as a result of being intentionally and repeatedly hit, according to court documents.

According to prosecutors, Segnini allegedly told the woman, his roommate, that Seamus was unresponsive when he woke up for work and that he attempted to perform CPR on the animal before covering it with a blanket and leaving. He allegedly told investigators a similar statement.

Segnini was subsequently arrested. He was indicted by a Middlesex County grand jury in September.

Upon his release following his arraignment on Oct. 24, he was ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with his former roommate, have no unsupervised contact with the animal at his residence, and not possess animals.

He will return to court on November 21. A lawyer for Segnini did not immediately respond to a request for comment.