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