By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

GRASS LAKE, Mich. — Matthew Mercier has launched a campaign to defend himself in the court of public opinion.

In March, the ranch he leased with business partner James Henderson Jr. was raided by Jackson County animal control officers after a police officer reported seeing horses he thought looked unhealthy. Mercier and Henderson were each charged with animal neglect, a 93-day misdemeanor. Later, the charge was upgraded to felony torture, which carries a maximum four-year sentence.

In April, Kimberlee Luce, Jackson County Animal Control director, said “some (of the horses) were in very bad shape. We body-scored them, and they were anywhere from severely emaciated to poor.”

Several months later, Mercier began to tell his own story of what happened. He opened a website at www.glhorsetruth.com and gave a synopsis of events from his perspective.

First, Mercier stated an animal rescue group called Ponies R Us went onto the property and said that it wasn’t a case of animal abuse. After that, he stated Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Lamp told the group not to come back onto the property.

Lamp did not respond to a telephone call or e-mail for this story. The Ponies R Us organization also did not return a telephone call for comment.

Mercier said Jackson County Animal Control called the news media after “destroying the barns and injuring some horses,” then broke the story in the news. Luce did not respond to telephone messages left for her at Jackson County Animal Control.

Mercier writes on his website that Lamp’s own expert witnesses testified that 56 of 69 horses on the farm were in “ideal” or “close to ideal” condition. He said they also testified that it’s not uncommon for old horses to lose weight in the winter, and that sick horses can lose a dramatic amount of weight in a short period of time.

A discussion forum on the Internet about the Turn3 Ranch case produced differing opinions about the care the animals were receiving. While most of the participants wrote that pictures of horses indicated that they were in good condition, a few said that they appeared underfed.

In a telephone interview, Mercier sounded annoyed that the Michigan Humane Society (MHS) told someone in an e-mail that he had been convicted of a crime. The MHS staff person who sent the e-mail was Stephanie Baron, public and media relations coordinator for the organization.

Baron acknowledged having sent the e-mail, saying it was “an honest mistake,” and “a misinterpretation” of information she had received. Mercier said he wrote to Baron about the e-mail, but that she hasn’t responded. Mercier said he wonders to how many other people she may have sent such e-mails.

Mercier has attorneys who are dealing with the civil and criminal aspects of his case.

On the civil side, he is trying to get his horses back, which were seized by the county. The county is currently trying to get the registration papers for the horses and then sell them.

Mercier said he is considering suing the county to prevent them from selling the horses. He said he had a meeting scheduled with the prosecutor on Friday, in which the prosecutor would try to get possession of the registration papers.

He said the county took the papers during its raid of his property, and he doesn’t know where it is keeping them.

This farm news was published in the Aug. 29, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.