I don't consider it to be back-pedaling to change an opinion when you're given new facts. You can say the soup is great, until you find out there's pee in it, then you change your mind(I'll bet). We got a partial story which no one would WANT to be true, and it's filled in some with hard facts(pictures), although we're still missing a lot of the story.
I'll still wait to hear the end results, and as I said, IF he's guilty, I'd want him punished, and if he's not, I'd want him cleared. I still think the girl's story sound a bit wacko, and it's going to end up a "he said, she said" from what I see. I don't know how anyone would have evidence of him doing all that from months ago, which makes me wonder how they are bringing charges just on someone's word. I mean.. I could pick some guy at random and say "Oh, he raped me" and they'll just go charge him? With all those details in the report, what evidence did they get to bring actual charges?
All the animal stuff stems from the sex charge warrant, so if that charge turns up bogus, they might end up having to throw out all the evidence of neglect if the warrant was based on nothing. Hopefully if there was indeed neglect(which at least that snake looks like) he'll get charged for it.