West Liberty man who abused roommate’s cat pleads guilty

IOWA CITY - A West Liberty man accused of abusing and torturing his roommate's cat last year has pleaded guilty.

According to online court records, 21-year-old Leo A. Nopoulos has entered a guilty plea. Nopoulos was charged with one count of animal torture and two counts of animal abuse. Online court records do not indicate whether any of those charges will be dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.

Iowa City police said Nopoulos was caught on video abusing his roommate's cat sometime between Oct. 8 and 9, 2014. The abuse occurred at their residence at 1856 Algonquin Road in Iowa City.

Police said the video evidence, captured in one of the roommate's bedrooms, shows Nopoulos abusing the cat, 'non-stop, for a period lasting longer than three hours.” Nopoulos is apparently seeing throwing the cat against the ceiling, punching and kicking the cat and hitting the cat with numerous objects, including an air freshener can and a remote control.

Nopoulos is seen on the video searching for the cat after it gets away from him so he can continue to abuse and torture the animal, police said. Police said Nopoulos admitted to abusing the cat to his roommates, parents and responding officer.

The case also led to the arrest of the cat's owner and Nopoulos' roommate, Nathan Schloss.

Police said when Schloss turned over a hard drive containing video evidence of the cat abuse, he also unwittingly gave police access to numerous videos depicting Schloss having sexual contact with allegedly incapacitated women. The videos had been deleted from the hard drive, but were recovered by investigators.

Investigators identified at least one victim and charged Schloss with 18 counts of third-degree sexual abuse and 22 counts of invasion of privacy. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is scheduled to stand trial July 14.

Nopoulos' sentencing was scheduled for May 18. However, his attorney filed a motion on Thursday seeking to have it rescheduled. It has not yet been rescheduled.