by Alex Brooks
NY State Police were called just after midnight on Thursday, September 25, by Bea Peterson from the Eastwick Press office and responded, in the early morning hours, to a number of other calls about a horse wandering around on Route 2 in Petersburgh. Not knowing whose horse it was, the Troopers called Lisa DeMayo of Bonnie Lea Farm in Williamstown, MA, who came out in the middle of the night to take the horse back to her farm.
[private]Late the next morning, police learned that the owner of the horse is Callie Crisp, and that the horse has been living on her property on River Road in Petersburgh. The police apparently thought the horse was not being fed adequately and called in a veterinarian to examine it. According to the police report, the vet “deemed the horse severely malnourished.” The police came out to look at Crisp’s property at her invitation and said in their report that there was no food for the horse on the property. They filed charges against Crisp for failure to provide sustenance to the animal and also for having four marijuana plants growing on her property.
Crisp said there was plenty of food on her property and “in fact the Trooper parked in front of a fresh load of hay.” She said she showed the food to the Trooper and doesn’t understand why the police are treating her like a criminal.
The horse’s name is Sargent Pepper. She calls him “Sarge.” She has owned him for ten years, and he has been living in her pasture on River Road in Petersburgh for eight years. She said he is skinny because he is old and because he has a disease which inhibits his eating. She said she has been giving him supplements because he is underweight.
Crisp wrote in an email, “My horse has a history of abuse and was initially brought to my residence as a ‘retirement home.’ He is 20 years old and was formerly physically abused. I have been ever so diligent in caring for him and have even been able to have my young daughter work with him, yet an unknown cause spooked him out of his pasture for the first time in all these years. The night this occurred, random townspeople proceeded to chase him all over town not knowing the mental torment this was causing the horse. I had been out looking for him until 2 am and was not contacted by the State Police until 10:30 the following morning.”
She continues, “I willingly consented to a search of my property to prove he had a field of grass, shelter, fresh grain and hay.”
Since resigning as Petersburgh’s Town Clerk, Crisp has been working with horses, giving riding lessons, leading trail rides and caring for the horses at a nearby horse farm. Because of this, she is very upset about being portrayed in the media, based on the police report, as negligent in caring for her horse. She said her horse has had regular vet care and plenty of food. She said, “The trooper who charged me did not understand basic horse care,” and added that his report contained incorrect statements that could be damaging to her career. She concluded, “I am innocent of the charge brought against me and horrified and embarrassed by the inaccuracy of” media reports about this incident.
Her case was originally scheduled to be heard in Town Court in Petersburgh on October 14, but Crisp said she has hired a lawyer to defend her and will seek a different venue, since she was recently an officer of that court and is good friends with the judges there, and it would be inappropriate for her case to be heard there.
Crisp said the police will not tell her where her horse is now. She has heard that he is still at Bonnie Lea Farm in Williamstown. She has requested that the horse be taken to the horse farm where she works. She said after this incident, she does not plan to keep him at her house anymore.
As for the marijuana plants, she said the Trooper did indeed find some plants on her property, but she had no idea they were there until the trooper identified them.[/private]