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Copyright
2010 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any
editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without
express written permission of the publisher. For information about
reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.
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Second
Trial for Heydons ends in a
Second Guilty Verdict
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By
Dorinda Troutmanm, RMR Staff Writer |
April
2010 Issue
[Editor’s
note: We did not have room this month to run the full article. If you would like
to read the details of the trial, including key witness testimonies, please
visit rockymountainrider.com, and click on the link to the Heydon Animal Abuse
articles page.]
Or,
you can click here to read
the detailed article
After a 5-day court battle, the two-man, four-woman jury in Montana
Judicial District Court returned a verdict in just three hours. The five-day
appeal trial was held February 22-26, 2010, in Montana Judicial District Court
in
Hamilton
,
Montana
, Judge Jeffrey Langston presiding.
Curtis Heydon, 39, was convicted of
ten out of eleven counts of animal abuse. His father, Craig Heydon, 72, was
convicted of nine out of ten counts of animal abuse. Two charges related to the
youngest horse were decided as not-guilty.
The verdict was almost the same as the
January 30, 2009, verdict of guilty on all 21 counts in
Ravalli County Justice Court
.
The Heydons, who live in
Georgia
, were charged with animal cruelty after being on a back country camping trip
with four horses during the summer of 2008 in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness
in
Montana
and
Idaho
.
Prosecutor John Bell, of the
Ravalli County Attorney’s office, called 18 witnesses, including
veterinarians, livestock inspectors, Wilderness rangers, sheriff’s deputies
and the three people who rescued one of the Heydons’ horses.
Bell focused much of this trial on
what back country riders should know about horses, packing and equipment, what
food they should provide horses, how they could learn that information, and what
measures should be taken if horses develop problems.
Bell
also provided expert testimony on the condition of the horses when they were
confiscated, and what simple measures were needed to bring them back to normal
health.
Defense attorney Mat Stevenson
based much of his defense on attempting to prove pre-existing health conditions
of the horses and the fact that one of the horses was in better condition than
the other three. He explained that by the time the Heydons recognized the
horses’ health problems, they were in the Wilderness area, without cell phone
reception or a vehicle.
Stevenson said that the state could
not prove the Heydons did not do everything within reason to care for the
horses.
Stevenson called five witnesses,
including two back country outfitters that testified as expert witnesses, the
Heydons, and the veterinarian who treated Able, the abandoned horse, on the day
he was rescued.
Prosecution
Witnesses
Witnesses Dawn Merrill and Mike Svoboda
related the discovery and rescue of Able, the horse which had been abandoned on
the Big Creek Trail.
Cheryl Flanagan who runs a
large horse rescue organization in
Georgia
, had not allowed the Heydons to take four of her horses on a trip to
Montana
in May 2008.
Wilderness Rangers Matthew Ward
and Bill Goslin both saw the horses at different times in the back country
and logged reports to their supervisors about the poor condition of the horses.
Goslin observed that the Heydons did
not pack their horses correctly, gave them a demonstration on how to pack,
discussed adequate feed for the horses, and noted the sore on the palomino’s
withers was “about three inches wide and in a healing process.”
Ravalli
County
Deputy
Sheriffs Travis McEldery and John Moles (considered a horse expert by the
department) confronted the Heydons at a Stevensville, MT, mini-storage facility
where the horses were corralled. People in the courtroom heard the recorded
conversation between the deputies and the Heydons.
The Heydons declared that the horses
had gotten adequate feed, that the horses were “stubborn” when they fell
down on the trail, and denied that the horses’ conditions were different than
when they purchased them.
Moles testified that when he saw the
three horses that night in Stevensville, “None of the horses wanted to take a
step. The palomino was what I call starved down. They had open sores and pretty
good-sized cuts, with feet too sore to walk. I’ve seen some horses in pretty
tough shape but I’ve not seen any as bad as these.
Dr. Shawn Gleason, who treated
the horses for sores, abrasions, abscessed feet, and starvation after they had
been confiscated, testified that the horses “did fine, recovering with simple
rest, food and water.”
Expert witness Dr. Robert Brophy DVM stated that the lab reports of Able which he
saw showed that “the animal was literally using its own muscle for food.”
Defense
Witnesses
Back country outfitter Rick Hussey described a good horse for his business as “a little
overweight, has a one to two sized shoe, a short back, good bone, and is calm
and slow.”
Prosecutor John Bell asked Hussey that
if the stock was in as poor condition as the US Forest Rangers had emailed, and
still taken into the Wilderness, was that more than inexperience?
Hussey answered, “Yes, that was inexperience and
stupidity. They’re just stupid. They’re dummer’n hell.”
Curtis Heydon gave a long
testimony about how he and his father had planned the trip, and gave details
about where they traveled in the mountains and how they cared for the horses.
John Bell asked Curtis a series of
questions, to which Curtis answered “No.” Had they thought of taking the
horses to the vet before going into the Wilderness? Had they thought of resting
and feeding them for a couple of weeks? Had they contacted a farrier? “You
said that Able went down 13 to 15 times on the trip. Did you think that was
bad?”
And finally,
Bell
asked, “Do you really think those people were wrong to rescue Able?”
Curtis said “I do.”
Craig Heydon testified about
how they had come to acquire the horses; that they couldn’t afford an
outfitter’s services; that he had received packing advice from a man in
Georgia
that was wrong; that when a horse went down on them five times, it was clumsy.
Heydon ended his testimony by stating
that, “When we left Colt Creek (on August 3), there was nothing wrong with
those horses. Nothing wrong with their eyes. Nothing wrong that we could see.”
Dr. Dick Richardson DVM
examined Able when the horse was rescued and brought to
Richardson
’s clinic.
Richardson
gave an account of what conditions could have caused the horses to lose weight,
have huge sores and have sore feet that developed into laminitis, including
pre-existing conditions, altitude and parasites.
In rebuttal, Dr. Gleason refuted Dr. Richardson’s testimony, and John
Moles reiterated his encounter with the Heydons and their horses.
Closing
Statements
John Bell asked the jury to do one
thing: “Look at the 30 photos of the horses. They are every bit as revealing
as the testimony, but they are not contradicting. Also, look at Dr. Gleason’s
treatment of the horses, Dr. Cross’s medical report, even Dr. Richardson’s
report, and the Forest Service emails.”
Bell
went over the timeline of the Heydons’ trip. “Why did the Heydons choose to
go back into the back country with these horses without getting them shod,
rested, fed and vet care?”
Mat Stevenson showed photos again of the horses at Elk Summit grazing in
green grass. “The horses were a little thin, certainly, but you can’t see
these overwhelming health problems. Should the Heydons have been concerned? This
(case) is about Dawn Merrill saying, in response to Officer McElroy’s question
of what she wants him to do, and she says to ‘make this man go away.’”
Stevenson instructed the jury, “You
must find that moment in time when they grossly deviated from standard care.”
Sentencing
Judge Jeffrey Langton pronounced
sentencing on March 3, 2010.
On each count, Judge Langton gave each
of the defendants 180 days of jail time, with 160 days suspended; which left
each to serve 180 days jail time (20 days x 9 counts), beginning immediately. He
said that he would not entertain any motion to suspend the sentence during an
appeal.
The Judge then said that the horses
would be forfeited, and that all costs, amounting to more than $29,000, should
be paid within five months or the balance of jail time would be served.
Disposition
of the Horses
On March 17, 2010, the Ravalli County
Commissioners gave the horses to the Willing Servants rescue group. However,
this sparked a controversy in the community. Many people felt the horses should
have been placed in good homes through the Bitter Root Humane Association, which
had cared for the horses after they were confiscated in 2008.
As RMR was going to press, the county
commissioners had agreed to re-hear the case on March 24, 2010. Members of the
public commented that the horses should be adopted out to good homes, and not
used for fund-raising efforts.
Please
check RMR’s website for the full article on the trial, as well as updates on
legal status of the horses.
To
read the longer detailed version of this article, please click
here.
Copyright
2010 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any
editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without
express written permission of the publisher. For information about
reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.
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