Notes from the Court Hearing Regarding Nakita Booth's Request to Get Horses Back from Horse North Rescue

These are my notes as they were taken at the hearing. There were some instances where what people said was inaudible. I am willing to fix any errors that are brought to my attention from anyone else attending the trial.

Observed approximately 40 people seated in courtroom. Case was brought in front of Judge Michael J. Haley. Jennifer Tang-Anderson was the prosecutor in the case. She is an Assistant Prosecutor in Grand Traverse County.

Danielle Round and Nakita Booth showed up with no attorney.

First witness called by Jennifer Tang-Anderson was Deputy Paul Postal Jr.

His testimony included: In January, he was called to Danielle Round's property on suspected animal cruelty/abuse. On January 7th, he met with Cora Wilson (who had reported abuse). She is a neighbor on the East side of Round's property. You can clearly see Round's horses from Wilson's property. There were two horses laying on the ground struggling to get up, flopping around in distress. The other five horses were also on the property and standing outside in the field (not in the barn).

The Deputy went to Round's home and met with Danielle, telling her why he was there. Danielle said the horses were fine. He asked permission to check the horses and was given permission. He noticed a barn on the property. The horses standing up were in the middle of the field. He went to the two horses who were laying on the ground. They appeared to be sick and unhealthy, underfed and with blood on their hooves. They were struggling in the ice and snow and there were streaks of blood around them.

He saw that the horses ribs were showing on the two horses on the ground as well as the other horses in the field. They were underfed in his opinion. He looked for food and water. He saw one bale of hay near the horses in the middle of the field and although there was a water trough near the barn, the water was frozen, with no heater attached to the water container. He went into the barn and saw 8 stalls and what appeared to be a few 1/2 stalls. There was no food or hay in the barn. There was feces in the barn. There was no water troughs in the barn. After speaking to Danielle, a call was made to Dr. Shanti Bhuyan, an equine veterinarian.

The Deputy inquired about ownership of the horses. Dana said she was responsible for all seven horses at the time of questioning, although two or three belonged to her daughter, Nakita, who was in Florida on Christmas vacation.

Danielle was present when the vet was there on the 7th, although she was walking back and forth from the barn to the horses and wasn't in contact much with the vet. The five horses that were alive were removed from the property that day. Danielle agreed for them to go to rescue. Danielle acknowledged a concern for the horse's health at that time even though she had no concern earlier when she told the Deputy that they were fine.

The Deputy took photos on the 7th & the 8th, which were submitted as evidence in the hearing. He took pictures of the horses that were euthanized, the horses that were still alive, the property and the barn. All were admitted into evidence.

On January 10th, the Deputy interviewed Nakita about the horses and she admitted ownership to a few of them. She said that hers were healthy. She said she was in Florida on vacation (December 25th through January 28th). She said she lives with Danielle Round at her residence. During this interview, she told the deputy that "her" horses were fine and the vet was inaccurate about their condition.

Dr. Bhuyan was the next witness. His testimony included: Dr. Shanti Bhuyan looked at the seven horses and observed that two of them could not get up, three were extremely emaciated and two of them were in "fair" condition. He tried to get the two horses up (one was three years old and one was 20 years old). He tried several techniques including scaring them. Horses are flight animals so they should have gotten up and ran away if it was physically possible for them to do so. They were laying on their side and wouldn't get up because they were so emaciated. They did not have enough muscle mass to get up.

When asked how long it would take horses to get in that condition, he said that two weeks was unlikely. In his opinion, it would take a month or six weeks to become that emaciated. He observed from their physical appearance that all seven horses were underfed. He rated them on a scale of 0 (zero) to 5 (five), with 5 being obese. Five of the horses were rated at 0-1. Two of the horses were rated at a 2.

He said that he is not their regular vet. He was at the house once, a long time ago. He was called there on the 7th as an emergency by law enforcement (although the actual call seems to have been made by Danielle).

He stated that if the horse was healthy enough, it would at least take a few weeks to get back to health if fed and watered correctly. Having seen horses who were as underfed as the ones on the ground, he said that when they get to that condition, most don't make it. He said it would have been inhumane to leave them there in that condition. A decision to euthanize the two horses was made and he thought the other five could be saved. Although some of the horses looked better than others, ribs were visible in all horses on the property.

He also noticed that the horse's hooves were not trimmed, another indication of a lack of care. He could not speculate on why blood was present on the hooves and in the area of the horses.

Danielle asked if he checked if the horses were dead after he euthanized them. He said yes, he used his stethoscope. Danielle asked him if it was a joint decision to put her mare "out of her misery" and he said yes.

Cora Wilson took the stand next (neighbor of Danielle Round who initiated abuse complaint). Three pictures were admitted into evidence that Cora had taken. One was of Danielle's horses on October 2011. The other two photos showed the horses in December of 2011. Cora, who is a horse owner, emailed Grand Traverse Animal Control about Danielle's horses in October and in December. Her photos were to show evidence of the horse's condition and lack of food with no pasture or hay to eat. She identified horses in photo. Danielle corrected her identifications.

The Deputy was called back to the witness stand and identified the horses as Lil Bit, Elmer, Oops, Whip It and Jazzie. The two horses that were euthanized were Indy and Rebel.

The judge asked if Nakita wanted to testify. She indicated that she did and a fifteen minute recess was called.

When everyone was back in the court room, it appeared that Nakita had talked to the prosecutor during the break. Danielle Round and Nakita Booth admitted to the civil violation and agreed to forfeit the horses. She said she didn't want people watching her and that she planned on moving. The judge asked again if she wanted to testify and she said no.

Although the horses were forfeited before the Judge got to rule, he made it clear that there was plenty of testimony that both women had custody and responsibility for the horses and they allowed them to become emaciated, underfed and under-watered. He said that a "pathetic state" for the animals was clearly shown just by the Deputy's testimony alone.

The Judge said he would sign an order forfeiting the animals to the custody of the Grand Traverse Animal Control (Horse North being a designee for custody). At the end, bills were submitted from Horse North for the care of the horses to that point - and the assistant prosecutor asked them to be submitted, which the judge accepted as he found that the women were responsible for the situation.