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Kudos to the Cit Pat for this article, enlightening residents on the costs that Jackson County is passing along to them.

Horses' seizure, sale begs questions
Posted by Jackson Citizen Patriot
May 23, 2008 09:33AM
Categories: Editorial

Issue
A judge orders Jackson County to pay the owner for horses it seized and sold off.

Our Say
The way that county officials handled this case could be very expensive.

The following is a Jackson Citizen Patriot editorial for May 23:

With every court ruling, it's becoming clear that Jackson County got more than it bargained for last year when it seized 69 horses from a Grass Lake farm.

County officials' actions since stepping foot on the Turn-3 Ranch in March 2007 have turned out to be expensive for taxpayers. That's especially true after Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson last week said the county will have to pay back the horses' owner after selling the animals.

Of course, the public should have been interested in the well-being of animals on the Turn-3 Ranch. But while officials acted in good faith, their handling of this should lead to questions.

Did officials at all levels of the county — from commissioners to the animal-control office to the prosecutor — make the best decisions? Did they get the best advice along the way? Could any of this been avoided?

Supporters of farm owner James Henderson Jr. and manager Matthew Mercier have been adamant that they did nothing wrong. That's a matter for the courts to settle, but Henderson and Mercier have refused to budge, even when faced with felony torture charges. A judge later tossed out those charges.

It's a stretch to say that this duo has been railroaded by local government, but the county's go-for-broke approach to this entire situation has backfired.

Today, county taxpayers are out $130,000 for the horses' care, plus whatever amount a District Court judge might order (prosecutors are appealing Wilson's ruling).

Should county officials have done anything differently? It's playing Monday-morning quarterback to say at this point, particularly as Henderson and Mercier still face criminal charges.

Still, the government's handling of this entire case raises doubts — expensive ones that the public might be paying for quite a long time.

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