ORLANDO, Fla. – The owner of a king cobra that escaped from an Orange County home in 2015 accepted a plea deal Wednesday and will not stand trial.
Michael Kennedy's snake escaped from his home in 2015. The king cobra was found under a woman's dryer four weeks later. No injuries were reported during the search and recovery of the snake.
Kennedy entered a no contest plea Wednesday morning and agreed to pay $2,500 to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for the cost of the investigation and $1,500 to the Florida Wildlife Alert Reward Fund.
Kennedy must also pay court fees.
In exchange, the judge will withhold adjudication on a charge of failing to properly maintain an animal enclosure, a second-degree misdemeanor. Other charges against Kennedy were dismissed.
"Obviously I disagreed with them from the beginning, but the outcome's fine now so I'm happy. I'm just glad it's all over," Kennedy said.
He apologized for any panic that was caused in the month that the snake was missing and he hopes it doesn't distract from the positive work he does.
"We're doing a lot of work supporting anti-poaching efforts in Africa in rhinos and elephants and that's our main focus right now, so I'm real glad to have this behind us, so we can get back to work on that," Kennedy said.
Michael Kennedy is in courtroom and entering plea of no contest. Will also donate $1500 to wildlife fund and $2500 to cost of investigation.
— Mark Lehman (@MarkLehman6) March 15, 2017
Judge withholds adjudication on count of fail to maintain animal enclosure (2nd deg misdemeanor). Dismissing other charges as part of deal.
— Mark Lehman (@MarkLehman6) March 15, 2017
Meanwhile, a monocled cobra escaped Monday from its enclosure in Ocala, and a search for the highly venomous snake is continuing.
Kennedy weighed in the latest cobra escape.
"Yeah, that one's a tiny little snake, and my opinion, he's still in the house," Kennedy said. "That little snake didn't go anywhere. He's just so small that it would be hard to find him."
He said if the snake did get out of the house, it likely won't survive the cold weather.