Geneva man accused of poisoning neighbor’s dogs

A Geneva man has been accused of poisoning a neighbor’s dogs because of their barking.

Vernan L. Pierce, 65, of the 800 block of Manchester Course, appeared at a pretrial detention hearing Wednesday afternoon.

He is charged with aggravated cruelty to an animal, criminal damage to property — domestic animal and criminal damage to property, all felonies.

He is also charged with poisoning a domestic animal and possession of a gun without a Firearm Owner’s Identification card, both misdemeanors.

Pierce is accused of putting chocolate patties, laced with homemade rat poison, in the yard of his next-door neighbor, once in February and again in March. One of the neighbor’s dogs ate part of a patty.

The dog was treated by a veterinarian and survived.

Prosecutors are not exactly sure what the ingredients were, because two criminal laboratories refused to test the materials found in Pierce’s garage because the case did not involve human victims, Anderson said.

Anderson said Pierce told police he had rat poison because he had rats in his garage. She said police found no carcasses, droppings or other evidence of rodents of any kind in his garage, and neighbors and city officials said there were no problems with rats in the neighborhood.

Anderson said police found 17 guns in Pierce’s house.

Pierce’s attorney, John Kopp, said Pierce moved to Illinois in October 2025 from Missouri, which does not require gun owners to have permits. He said Pierce did not know he had to obtain an FOID when he moved to Illinois.

He said Pierce moved to Geneva to be closer to his child and grandchildren, used to be an attorney, and teaches business and economics classes at a university.

“It would be a crazy notion to think he would start poisoning neighbors’ dogs because they were a nuisance,” Kopp said.

Kane County Judge Bianca Camargo released Pierce on electronic home monitoring. Pierce offered to live with his adult child elsewhere in Geneva, so Camargo ordered that. He will have to stay at least 500 feet away from the home of the complaining witness.