Attorney blames farm owner's son for neglecting horses

By Frances Ruth Harris
GOSHEN — The case of the farm owner accused of animal cruelty is taking an unexpected turn. Her lawyer blaming the farm owner's son for the deaths of her 10 horses.
Jeanne Ryan of Argus Farm in Goshen is accused of closing the barn door sheltering her horses, walking away, and leaving them to die. Ten horses were discovered last summer in the locked barn, dead of starvation.
On Monday, the first day of the trial, attorney Michael Sussman said Ryan was trying to take care of the horses but was physically unable to do the work. She left the responsibility to her son Jimmy McSwigin, now 21.
Sussman said McSwigin abused his mother. He once grabbed her by the throat and threw her down the steps. Ryan got an order of protection after that, he said.
Sussman said McSwigin is being treated for behavioral problems.
Town of Goshen Police officer Stanley Lupinski, the first witness, said he visited Argus Farm on Sept. 7, 2017, bearing a search warrant.
The second witness, investigator Brandon Ozman, was part of a team of police officers and investigators that executed a search warrant in July 2017.
Ozman said Seamus, the one live horse found in the locked barn, was standing in 12 inches of dung near the carcass of another horse. Seamus had a parasitic infection, Osman said.
Pictures flashed on a screen showing wood gouges made by the horses' teeth. They gnawed on wood from the window frames and walls as they struggled to survive.
Other pictures showed empty buckets. Ozman said he didn't know if the barn included a water source: a 75-foot hose ran from the house but did not reach the barn.
Still other pictures showed the elongated, split hooves on the surviving horse that forced him to walk on the back of his feet, a painful condition.
One photo showed a dead foal resting her head on a mare’s carcass. Ozman said he and others present in the barn that day agreed the horses had been dead a long time.
The third witness, New York State Police Officer Christopher Jones, said he examined Ryan's cell phone, and took from it messages and chats at the direction of Chris Borek, Chief Assistant District Attorney.
Judge Robert Freehill is presiding over the bench trial. Twenty members of Justice for the Horses of Argus Farm attended court that day.
The dead horses were owned by Ryan and her then-boyfriend, Angel Garcia. Twenty horses, alive and dead, were on the property on July 29, 2017, when police and investigators found them. Nine starved to death in stalls.
Day TwoOn Tuesday, day two of the trial, McSwigin said his mother told him to put the horses in the barn because some would jump over or through the fence, then trespass on neighboring properties. Those who did not try to leave the property survived.
The neighbors would call the police whenever the horses entered their property, he said, and then the police would knock on their door.
McSwigin is the eldest of Ryan's two sons. He told the court he'd completed his high school equivalency degree two months earlier, worked at the Dairy Queen, and lived with his father and his father's fiancee.
Borek asked McSwigin about each horse found at the farm. McSwigin said they were healthy, had muscle, and looked fine. He said he fed the horses two flakes of hay — a small portion — each day, in accordance with his mother's instructions.
When the horses began to lose weight, he told his mother, he said. He said he talked to her as the horses whittled down to skin and bone, their ribs and pelvic bones protruding. One horse had an abscess on its face.
McSwigin said his mother visited the barn and knew about the conditions the horses endured. Each time a horse died, he said, his mother told him to hook up the tractor and drag the carcass to the back of the property. When the tractor broke down, the carcasses remained in the barn, atop a foot or more of dung.
McSwigin said his mother said she would try to sell some of the horses.
One by one, McSwigin named each horse and located its stall on a map of the barn that Borek had provided. He named the dead horses: Bay Horse, Buella and her foal, Desmond, Navy, Peyton, Ragamuffin, Sophie, and Yellow Horse.
He said Buela, a mare, died before her colt did. The colt was forced to end its life wasting next to its mother's decaying carcass, in manure at least one foot deep.
The level of manure in the barn eventually rose to one and a half feet.
Seamus was found in a stall with Ragamuffin's decaying carcass.
Borek asked McSwigin to read a text message he received from his mother, which asks McSwigin to give the horses extra feed and oil to fill them out and cover their ribs. She said she thought people were spying on her.
McSwigin left the property following his arrest for shoving his mother.
During cross examination, Sussman said McSwigin didn't always follow his mother's instructions.
"No, I guess you're right," McSwigin replied.
The horses died of starvation over a period of four to six months, McSwigin said. Sussman discovered though questioning McSwigin that McSwigin was not clear on the dates the horses were placed in the barn and the dates on which they died.
The judge cloistered McSwigin in another room while Sussman and Borek discussed McSwigin's confused remembrances of dates. Sussman told the court that McSwigin gave dates that varied from those he gave to the grand jury, which impeded his defense. The dates are integral to the case, Sussman said.
Borek said confusion about the dates did not change the fact that the horses were found starved to death on Ryan's property.
Judge Freehill said McSwigin would return to court, and that proceedings would continue.
Additional court dates scheduled at this time are Friday, May 11, and Monday, May 14, both at 2 p.m. More dates may be added.
McSwigin's cross examination was not completed and will continue on Monday. On Friday, other witnesses will come before the court.