PIT BULL RESCUER'S HUSBAND ARRESTED.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

AGUA DULCE -- The ex-convict husband of a pit bull dog rescuer and one of her employees have been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation, sheriff's deputies said Friday.

ArenMarcus Jackson, husband of Villalobos Rescue Center owner Tia Torres, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday and was being held on a no-bail parole hold.

Employee Kanani Chock was arrested Sept. 6 after a parole agent and six deputies went to the rescue compound where both men live in the 36000 block of Anthony Road.

Torres herself is not part of the investigation and has not been arrested or charged, Los Angeles County sheriff's Detective Dan Dantice said. Attempts to reach Torres on Friday were unsuccessful.

Jackson, 37, wasn't at the compound during the Sept. 6 search. He later surrendered to parole agents and was booked on suspicion of violating his parole.

Jackson served about 14 years in prison for attempting to murder two Orange County sheriff's deputies, officials said. He got out of prison last year, Dantice said.

Chock, 20, was arrested on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine and was released the same day pending charges, Dantice said.

Torres was in the news last month when she kidded that she might reopen a Nevada bordello to fund her animal rescue operation.

Torres first opened her heart and home to pit bulls, now associated with gangs and blood sports, in 1993 after rescuing a shelter dog found at the site of a double murder in Lancaster.

Her center is now the largest in the nation with 200 pit bulls, most of them trained for good homes, therapy animals and Hollywood films.

Her Pets in the Hood program employs docile pit bulls to teach compassion and husbandry to kids in juvenile hall at Sylmar.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com