UPDATE 5/28/03 on the Montana Collies

Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt in Anaconda, MT

*Permission to crosspost

Wednesday, Trial Day 2.  The prosecutor called Deputy Mike Lamey of TCSO – chief investigator for this case.  As in the first trial, we heard Deputy Lamey describe the filthy, feces-caked, matted dogs with urine frozen on their coats, confined in a pen outside the truck.  He described arriving at the Port of Sweet Grass on the night of Oct. 31, 2002 to investigate the truckload of dogs and cats; the condescending attitude Ms. Harman exhibited when he interviewed her; how ill, sick, and in bad shape the dogs were.  He described boarding the vehicle between 2:00 and 2:30 am to investigate.  He described the total darkness, the kennels of dogs stacked nearly to the ceiling, the stench, extreme dampness, the ceiling of the truck covered in ice, visible in the light of his flashlight.  At his eye level he could see in the third tier of crates dogs moving about, sloshing a slurry broth of urine and feces out of their crates, dripping onto his uniform and coating the extremely narrow aisle down which he had to turn sideways to move.  He testified he instructed Ms. Harman to open some of the wooden boxes built two high on the floor containing dogs so he could see inside.  “I saw mostly collie dogs in horrible condition.”  He explained Ms. Harman told him she had 105 dogs, and exhibited 105 sets of rabies paperwork.  After a fair amount of prodding she admitted to 120-130 dogs.  He thought there seemed to be about 150-160 animals.  She said she had some barn cats with her, too.  He described the poor ventilation of the truck, dogs standing in kennels just shaking, and soaking wet.  When he asked questions of Ms. Harman, he testified, “The answers I got were incredible.  I saw dogs, which in my opinion, were hypothermic.”  When he questioned her about that, she told him they were just nervous.  He testified, “I was appalled by what I had seen.  I thought we had a very bad situation on our hands.”  He described contacting the County Attorney, Mr. Raph, a veterinarian, Dr. Hardee Clark, Chief Deputy Don Hale, and then-Undersheriff Donna Matoon.

The decision was made to arrest the Harmans, and detain the animals to help them.  The reason they didn’t arrest the Harmans immediately was, according to Deputy Lamey, “I wanted her to continue doing what she was doing to help the animals, although it was totally inadequate; I couldn’t do it.”  Prosecutor Merle Raph asked:  “When was the last time you had contact with the dogs?”  Deputy Lamey:  “Early in May I conducted an audit of the numbering system on the dogs.”  He explained concern had been raised regarding the numbers on some dogs.  Conclusion of the audit:  “I thought we had done a very nice job of maintaining evidence...one slight clerical error on paper only.  One dog was numbered twice.”

On cross examination defense attorney Albers began a timeline with much rattling of easel paper, establishing in minute detail who did what, where, and when at the Port of Sweet Grass that night.  The defense tried in vain to force Deputy Lamey to say what he wanted him to say.  Deputy Lamey skillfully and professionally stuck to his testimony in a courteous and polite manner.

Peculiarly, the defense insisted repeatedly on trying to force Deputy Lamey to say he had denied the Harmans the right to drive the truck to a large store parking lot.  Lamey declined to fall into that trap, and stuck to his testimony that the Harmans kept saying that they wanted to “go on down the road.”  The defense tried to force Lamey to say how much Ms. Harman was helping the dogs [by carrying her little container of water back and forth from the ladies room to the dog pen all night].  Lamey: “I don’t know if she helped the dogs.  I saw her carrying water maybe four times during the night.  She kept coming into the lobby to engage me in conversation.”

Deputy Lamey established he called Dave Pauli, Regional Director of HSUS, at the instruction of the Undersheriff, Donna Matoon.  Following a break for lunch, Deputy Lamey continued on the stand.  Albers tried to offer excuses for the unconscionable condition of the animals, i.e., flood, fire in Alaska.  We heard all about the ineffective drive, stop, let dogs out, feed, water, clean, routine the Harmans employed all the way down from Alaska.

Albers, clearly ineffective with this witness, exhibited his frustration by saying, “There is tremendous pressure on the part of the Toole County Sheriff’s Department to obtain a conviction in this case, isn’t there?”  Deputy Lamey countered with, “I think you are trying to portray it different than I remember.”

Judge Pete Howard finally asked Albers to “move on.”  “He can’t answer different than he has.”

Albers:  “Isn’t it true massive pressure has been brought to bear on your testimony to change...”  The prosecutor objected, the judge sustained.

Prosecutor:  “Are you shading your testimony today?”

Lamey:  “No.”

Prosecutor:  “Could the defendant have taken better care of these animals by not putting herself in this situation?”

Albers:  “Objection!”

Prosecutor called Ryan Miluard.  Mr. Miluard works in a tire shop in White Horse, Yukon, Canada.  He described putting one new tire on the Harmans’ truck and fixing one flat.  “All of the tires were bald, the truck wasn’t road-worthy,” he testified.

Mr. Coble:  “Did you note anything unusual?”

Mr. Miluard:  “...full of dogs, screaming, yelping, barking, crying.  Things were not quite right inside.  It smelled horrible, enough to make you puke.  I couldn’t handle it.”

Albers:  “...good time to sell some tires.”

Mr. Miluard:  “He [Jon Harman] didn’t even want to get some fixed.”

Albers tried to make Mr. Miluard take back his explanation of “screaming and crying” and substitute “barking.”  Mr. Miluard:  “I own dogs.  There is a difference between screaming and barking.”

Mr. Coble:  “...wanted to get them gone”  Mr. Miluard nodded yes.

Mr. Coble:  “...didn’t report to the authorities?”

Mr. Miluard:  “That was a mistake.  I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

Folks, this judge is moving this trial along rapidly.  There were three additional witnesses today, two animal control officers and one eye-witness to an approximately 25-collie escape near Palmer, Alaska.  Their testimony will be updated on Thursday.

P.S.  You will NOT BELIEVE IT when I tell you coincidentally I had lunch today with a woman, Candy Kirby, who donated the white-crocheted afghan I described for you yesterday.  She bought it at a Goodwill store for her rescue greyhound, Ruby.  She and Ruby donated it to the Montana collies!  A volunteer who came to Anaconda from Great Falls today told me it had been washed and now “Blue,” #102, has it in his pen.  He is a very tidy gentleman.

Calmly,

Jean Levitt, President AWCA

If you would like to assist AWCA with this rescue effort, you may send a check to:

                                                Bethany Burke

                                                AWCA Treasurer

                                                2807 Lee Trevino Court

                                                Shalimar, FL 32579

Make the check out to AWCA and in the memo area note:  collie rescue-medical, collie rescue-stainless steel, or collie rescue-general.