Felony charges dismissed!

This is the latest from the case that has been dragged out for more than a year.

Felony Charges of Animal Torture Dismissed
Posted by: Matt Mercier
Date/Time: Apr 30, 08 - 2:09 PM

3 Counts of Felony Animal Torture were dismissed by Judge Schmucker today.
He ruled that the definition of torture did not apply at all in this case.

There is still one misdemeanor animal neglect charge left open at this time. Will keep readers up to date as news breaks.

No news on whether or not anyone from Animal Control will stand trial for neglect ... although the evidence has been stacking up against them for nearly a year as well.

Additional information from the JCP site:

Torture charges dismissed in horse case
Posted by Kristin Longley
Jackson Citizen Patriot
April 30, 2008 17:14 PM

There is no evidence the owner or manager of a Grass Lake Township farm intended to harm the three horses they are charged with torturing, a judge said today.

In a written opinion, Circuit Judge Chad Schmucker dismissed the three felony torture charges against owner James Henderson Jr. and manager Matthew Mercier.

The men still face one misdemeanor count of neglecting a herd of 66 horses.

And the county faces a lot of people that are angry about these horses being seized from the owners, kept on the "messy" farm that was allegedly so dangerous, and sold to anyone with $100 and a horse trailer bound for anywhere, including the slaughter facilities in Canada and Mexico.

Follow-up to "atrocity" letter

The Brooklyn Exponent saw fit to print a rebuttal:

Facts distorted in horse case

Dear editor,

I felt compelled to write a response to the letter by Pam Jarvis that was printed in the April 22, 2008, Brooklyn Exponent.

I became involved in this case on April 10, 2007 while donating hay -- and her facts are grossly distorted. This has dragged on for over a year and it is well overdue for trial. Jackson County bungled this case from the beginning. Many of the "facts" she brings up have already been voluntarily recanted by Jackson County Prosecutors and Animal Control.

What they told Pam is what they were telling the press. Anything to get they public's sympathy, support and donations. Now that the old prosecuting attorney has been "relocated" and a senior attorney has taken it on, he is trying his best to ascertain damage control.

Judge Schmucker is currently considering dropping all felony charges. (note: charges were indeed dismissed on 4/30) Is it really justification for taking everything these two men had over a possible pending misdemeanor charge?

One has to personally own and raise livestock to understand the situation. Is Pam a livestock owner?

Syringes are used to vaccinate livestock -- I'd be more concerned if I didn't find any on a farm of that size.

A dead horse cannot be buried in winter (frozen ground) -- a rendering truck had already been called and the carcass was moved to the driveway for pick up.

Hay, grain and water were on the premises.

Two elderly horses and one sick one were very thin. That happens with the old and sick -- and they were already separated and being fed extra before AC came in.

The hip problem with one horse occurred after AC took over -- horse was trampled by the others when AC was only feeding one round bale to a herd of 40 plus horses and they were fighting over it.

The horse with wire embedded had an appointment with the vet on March 17th that Mr. Mercier had to cancel because JCAC would not let him "remove" the horse for care, then they took 3 more weeks to get him in to a vet after the county seizure.

A 5 x 7 foot stall never existed on the premises.

Animal Control and Leelanau brought in some of the items that were donated, the money and many donated items "disappeared".

Incidentally, after numerous requests in writing to Leelanau Horse Rescue, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, I was never given a receipt for my large donation. I'd love to see a list of donations, because my name and what I gave is nowhere on it.

Animal Control did not give a 10, 15 or 30 day notice to make improvements to their specifications.

Stalking charges? What a joke, all were laughed out of court for lack of justification to begin with. No assault ever took place and there were never any charges filed for such. What a waste of taxpayer dollars.

And what of the infamous "black chopper" that Officer Wheaton stated under oath that these two men were flying and was hovering over the farm in Grass Lake? One of many ridiculous accusations under sworn testimony that was sheepishly recanted by JCAC.

A short visit to www.GLHorsetruth.com would clear up all these misconceptions. All the trial transcripts are there, along with pictures that JCAC took immediately after the seizure of overweight horses with recently trimmed or shod feet.

Did you see any of the pictures taken at the auctions? Let's talk about atrocious.

I bought a Turn 3 horse at the September auction in Napoleon. It only took me 3 weeks to de-worm and put weight on his skinny frame. His spine, ribs and hip bones were prominent and his feet hadn't been done at all in the 6 months they had him. I have 'before' and 'after' pictures. This horse did not look this bad in April, 2007. How could I do in 3 weeks what the "experts" couldn't even maintain in six months?

Animal Control is not knowledgeable enough about livestock to attempt to maintain a herd of this size. They bit off way more than they could chew and they did these horses a grave injustice. They were in worse shape at the auctions than they were at seizure. Small wonder they were in such a rush to auction them off before winter set in. If they were unable to keep weight on or properly maintain these horses over the easy summer months, imagine how many dead horses in the driveway we would have seen this spring.

Thus far, these men have not been convicted of anything. Not even a misdemeanor charge.

It "saddens and frightens me" that if I have one sick animal out of 20, that the government can storm in, seize my personal property (trucks, trailers, saddles, computers, clothing, tools, etc) along with the remainder of my livestock and sell it all before I'd have my day in court.

If Pam believes everything she reads in the papers and was told by JCAC, maybe there's a bridge in Brooklyn she'd be interested in buying.

Kathy Brown, Brooklyn

Way to go, K.B.! Amazing how the witness testimony of people who were actually there differs from the testimony of those who were apparently told what to say by the prosecution, hmmm?

Oh, wow.

Out of the blue, we have a new opinion column to share.

New to this blog? Please, before you assume for one moment that the following letter is truthful and accurate; before thinking to yourself, "How awful for those horses, lock these men up" ... might I suggest you read the long and incredible history of this alleged "torture" case ... you'll find blog entries dating back to last spring on the right side of this page. Thank you. Now kindly proceed ...

Brooklyn Exponent
http://www.theexponent.com/
The Exponent - Brooklyn Michigan Local Newspaper

Letters to the Editor
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Our readers voice their opinions

Horse farm atrocity

Dear editor,

To whom it may concern -- that would be any volunteer, police officer, or animal control personnel that was involved with the horse farm atrocities at the Turn 3 Ranch in Grass Lake. It seems from the article recently published in the Citizen Patriot that your efforts were for nothing. There is now discrepancy in the actual definition of cruelty and torture, not to mention the fact that one judge has said that another judge doesn't seem to know the difference.

The court case is to be sped up because it is an older case, yet the fact remains that James Henderson and Matthew Mercier are responsible for this in the first place. They had opportunity before seizure to make things right. However, they choose to walk away from this, and thus we have an old case tying up the courts, and money spent on the horses that all could have been avoided had animal control [officers] not seen a dead horse in the driveway of the ranch. If Henderson as the owner, and Mercier as the manager had been doing the responsible thing, there would have been no dead horse, no starving animals, and no court case. There is now a judge who will decide if it is, in fact, a solid case based on misinformation, partial truths supplied by the defendants, a new prosecuting attorney and a time factor.

It would be interesting to see what the defense attorney Fabian (CitPat-is this a first or last name? Stage name or what?) would say if he were able to see before and after pictures of the farm, before stating that the farm was left a mess. It was an old burned out house with a ramshackle barn, an empty in-ground pool full of debris, and heaps of refuse. Animal control [officers] went through the property to remove any hazards, such as discarded syringes used for who knows what purposes, boards, nails, old wire, garbage and other debris. One such wire is what endangered the quality of life on one of the horses in question. A section of rusted wire was surgically removed from the horse, and she is now rendered lame, never to bear the weight of a person. Animal control and the Leelanau Rescue brought in gates, fence and materials to build shelters for the several horses that were left exposed to the elements. Not to mention the fact that they also brought food, medicine, water, hay and safety to these same horses. Which it was proven that previously to the intervention, the had none of.

Through donations and volunteers, these horses were brought back to a healthy state of being. It saddens and frightens me to think that a judge who portrays such a lack of professional ethics, is going to decide whether or not two men who have also shown a lack of ethics, their fate. Judge Schmucker is a felony judge, so maybe the fact that someone wasn't shot, or stabbed makes a difference to him. Too bad horses can't talk about how it feels to go months without food, or limp around for months with a broken hip, or infected wire wrapped around your ankle. Or maybe what its like to live in a 7 foot by 5 foot stall that has been nailed shut and stand in your own feces for over a year, be covered in lice, filled with worms to the point that they crawl out of your rear end. If that could happen, maybe he would think of these as "crimes" instead of time consuming paperwork. This same judge, doesn't seem to see the problem of besmirching a fellow judge and basically calling him incompetent. The total lack of respect shown a colleague, and all of the other professionals that were called upon to testify, these being professional veterinarians from Michigan State University and local veterinary professionals, shows me that he thinks an awful lot of himself. As witness to the day that the Michigan State vet testified, Judge Filip brought out the Webster's dictionary and read the definition of cruelty and torture to her. She testified that yes, that is what the horses had suffered. It is my hope that Judge Schmucker will read these testimonies while not wearing his omnipotent glasses. The complete disregard of the court system shown by Mr. Mercier and Mr. Henderson shows me that the efforts to save the horses may have amounted to nothing more than an act of kindness.

The Citizen Patriot stated that Mr. Henderson is a Probation Officer in Washtenaw County. What relevance does that have? Other than maybe it explains his knowledge of how to manipulate a court hearing, a judge and the system. Is it not important to say what Mr. Mercier does? Not glamorous or impressive? It was documented that Henderson and Mercier threatened, stalked and harassed several people during the investigation and assaulted an officer.

Judge Schmucker, are you reading this?

Pam Jarvis, Brooklyn

Okay. You guys know best. Start commenting.

I'll add my inline comments later ... I'm stuck in a rare moment of wordless shock at Ms. Jarvis' unfounded allegations, ridiculous statements, outright ignorance and condescending attitude toward the judicial process that protects us all from wrongful conviction.

Alright, nearly wordless shock. ;)

XP