Attorneys/Judges
| Prosecutor(s): | Shani Krumholz | | Defense(s): | Alan Goldman | | Judge(s): | Michael Gillespie |
Horse neglect - 10 seized
North Bend, OR (US)Incident Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009
County: Coos
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Bobbye Cikanek
Case Updates: 7 update(s) available
A judge has banned a Coos County woman from owning horses until animal abuse charges are resolved.
The county wants 63-year-old Bobbye L. Cikanek of North Bend to forfeit the 10 horses, including one foal. Authorities say they were malnourished, and neighbors complained about their living conditions.
She is charged with animal abuse and neglect.
Some of the horses have been sent to foster homes. Sheriff's deputies say four continue to be held at the Coos County Fair grounds because they aren't quite tame.
Case UpdatesChickens are the only kind of animal Bobbye Cikanek can own for the next five years, according to her sentence for abusing and neglecting her 10 horses.
“You can keep your chickens,” Judge Michael Gillespie told Cikanek at her hearing Friday morning.
The North Bend woman, convicted of first-degree animal abuse and 10 counts of second-degree animal neglect, cannot own livestock or domestic animals during her five-year probation, except for 20 chickens living on her property.
She’ll also have to pay courts fees and $5,182 in restitution, for the cost of caring for nine horses and a foal for two months. Coos County animal control officers and sheriff’s deputies removed the animals from her property on May 13 and placed them with community members and at the Coos County Fairgrounds. She forfeited the animals in mid-July.
The payment will go toward farrier, feed and veterinary bills, said Coos County Assistant District Attorney Shani Krumholz. That doesn’t include donated veterinary services, hours put in by volunteers or donated feed for the Tennessee walking horses.
“A lot of money was put forth by the community that will never be accounted for,” Krumholz said.
At the beginning of the hearing, Cikanek told the judge that she should keep the 14 pugs that are part of a dog-breeding operation at her home near the Kentuck Slough. Selling puppies is a big part of her income, she argued.
Gillespie questioned how much she actually made from the animals. But then Cikanek and her attorney told him the dogs belonged to her roommate, who also co-owns their home. Gillespie admonished her for failing to provide that information earlier.
“Do you know what an oath is, ma’am?” Gillespie asked her. “That’s where you promise to tell the truth.”
Cikanek said she raised the dogs and tried to explain her partnership with her roommate. Gillespie didn’t buy her story, comparing her to former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
“You never talk the same language twice,” he said. “Half the truth is still a lie.”
Cikanek replied that she was just nervous.
The judge said she can live in the same house with the pugs and other pets that belong to the roommate. She just can’t act like an owner.
Cikanek had been concerned that being banned from owning animals would force her to move back to Winnemucca, Nev., or find a separate home. She noted that she had chronic bronchitis and severe allergies in Nevada.
“Three days in Oregon, and it all went away,” she said as defense attorney Allen Goldman patted her shoulder. “I would like to stay here because I’ve felt so much better.”
That won’t be a problem if the animals are under her roommate’s name. But the judge warned Cikanek:
“You take a dog to a vet, you’ve got a problem. You take a cat to a vet, you’ve got a problem,” Gillespie said. “They’re not your pets. They’re her pets.
“She can do what she wants in her house, but that doesn’t include you.”
He told her he won’t hesitate to lock her up if she breaks his rules.
To pay restitution and other fees, Cikanek and Goldman said she would sell her property in Winnemucca. The public defender asked the judge to give her time for the sale to go through to pay. In response, Gillespie extended probation from two years to five.
He set another hearing at 8:30 a.m. on July 16 to reschedule payments if Cikanek’s sale goes through. | Source: The World Link - Nov 21, 2009
Update posted on Nov 21, 2009 - 1:10PM |
Bobbye Cikanek knows she probably won’t be able to own horses anymore.
But the woman convicted of abusing and neglecting 10 Tennessee walking horses hopes a Coos County Court judge will let her continue breeding and owning more than a dozen dogs living on her North Bend property.
The likelihood seemed remote at a Friday morning sentencing, when Judge Michael Gillespie abruptly halted her hearing and pushed it forward two weeks. The Coos County assistant district attorney told the judge she is concerned about the horse and dog breeder’s ability to care for any animal. Upon hearing Cikanek’s description of her income from selling pug pups, the judge said he thought she was lying.
He demanded proof.
“I don’t believe one word of what you said, to be honest,” Gillespie told Cikanek. “If you can’t document it, you won’t have those dogs.”
Cikanek and a roommate, who co-owns the home on Waymire Lane, care for more than 20 chickens, five cats, 14 pug puppies and dogs, and one Boston terrier. She asked the judge to let her keep the dogs, saying their sales supplement her income. Cikanek said she still owns a home in Nevada, along with the one in North Bend, which she can’t afford to leave.
“I cannot maintain three households. I maintain two as it is,” Cikanek said.
She told Gillespie she charges between $400 and $600 per pup and had sold about 13. After figuring out the math, the judge said it seemed unlikely that she could be making $750 per month on the dogs and ordered her to prove it or lose them.
Gillespie then attached the sentencing to a scheduled restitution hearing on Nov. 20. The judge noted he had no intention of sending her to jail.
The 64-year-old seemed unfazed as she stood with public defender Allen Goldman. She said she had registered records of her sales through the American Kennel Club.
“I was unhappy that he felt that I was lying to him, but I have the proof,” Cikanek said later.
In October, a six-person jury convicted Cikanek of one count of first-degree animal abuse and 10 counts of second-degree animal neglect. Coos County Animal Control officers and sheriff’s deputies confiscated Cikanek’s 10 horses in May, after people complained she was neglecting malnourished equines with overgrown hooves and a foal lying in the mud.
She could face a fine of $6,250 and up to a year in jail for the Class A misdemeanor; and $2,500 per B misdemeanor, along with six months per charge. The state also is seeking $5,182 in restitution for feed, veterinary services and farrier costs for the animals to be paid to the Coos County Mounted Sheriff’s Posse Rescue Horses, which cared for the animals.
At the beginning of the hearing, Coos County Assistant District Attorney Shani Krumholz said she wanted the judge to order maximum probation for the defendant and to prevent her from owning any livestock during probation.
Goldman attributed his client’s behavior involving the horses to having too many animals and not enough money. He explained that when she moved near Kentuck Slough from Winnemucca, Nev., her income was stretched in transporting and acclimating the animals.
Cikanek said she had never intended to keep all the horses. She only wanted two or three and to live off money from selling the others.
She had tried selling them in Nevada and California and then again in Oregon. Here, she found she couldn’t move the animals without testing for equine infectious anemia, as required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when horses are brought into the state.
Cikanek’s next hearing is set for 9 a.m. on Nov. 20. | Source: The World Link - Nov 7, 2009
Update posted on Nov 9, 2009 - 3:29AM |
A North Bend woman is found guilty Friday morning, of animal abuse and neglect, after a two day trial brought forward graphic testimony into the handling and condition of ten horses on her property.
Bobbye Cikanek, was back in a Coos County courtroom Thursday for day two of her jury trial.
The focus of the prosecution continued to be the health and condition of all ten horses, including a newborn foal, born on May 5th and its mother, both taken from the property by law enforcement officials, on May 7th.
Heidi Erickson, has a horse boarding facility down the road from Cikanek and has been taking care of the foal and mare.
She describes the condition she first saw them in.
"There was a mare and a newborn foal, what appeared to be just a newborn laying in the mud. At that point I actually wasn't sure if it was alive or dead. The mare was standing back off in the corner, away from the foal, I would say she was distressed."
Cikanek took the stand in the afternoon and was asked by her attorney, Alan Goldman, whether she noticed any health conditions or problems with her horses while on her North Bend property, to which she replied no.
In their closing arguments, both sides took one last chance to discuss the case.
"Was she reckless? Yes. Ms. Cikanek herself told you that she has 46 years of experience handling horses. Would a reasonable person, who has care and the knowledge to deal with horses, leave a foal in the mud for two days in March in Oregon? No," said Prosecuting Attorney Shani Krumholz.
"She was going on the knowledge that she had, this is not somebody who said, well I don't know anything about these animals and I'm just gonna fly by the seat of my pants, that would have been reckless," said Goldman during his closing arguments.
The six person jury deliberated for an hour and 25 minutes this morning before delivering a verdict.
Cikanek was found guilty on one count of animal abuse in the first degree and ten counts of animal neglect in the second degree. | Source: KCBY - Oct 9, 2009
Update posted on Oct 12, 2009 - 3:45AM |
On the witness stand, Bobbye Cikanek coolly read lists of the feed she purchased for her nine horses before and after she moved to North Bend.
In response to allegations that she abused and neglected 10 horses, she told jurors she jumped through every hoop presented by a Coos County animal control officer from providing extra water to hiring a farrier. And when asked about one horse's abnormally long hooves, she said they couldn't be trimmed because the animal had an attitude.
"I did everything he asked," she said.
Despite the defendant's testimony at the trial at the Coos County Courthouse on Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Shani Krumholz argued in her closing statements that Cikanek's purchases and excuses didn't bring relief for her animals. Officers still confiscated nine bony horses and a dying foal that had been found lying in the mud.
"The food that was purchased in this case did not translate to healthy horses," Krumholz said, her voice rising. "She chose to leave the foal in the water and mud for two days."
Cikanek faces one count of first-degree animal abuse in connection with the foal and 10 counts of second-degree animal neglect. She originally faced 10 counts of abuse, but Krumholz said she dropped nine counts because she didn't have the evidence to support the charges. The foal survived after she and her mother were placed with another horse owner.
Defense Attorney Allen Goldman told six jurors the state could not prove neglect with each of the 10 Tennessee walking horses, that witness testimony was incorrect and that horses, unlike dogs or cats, don't require much care. He also stated that animal control officers, who met with Cikanek from March through May, following neighbors' complaints about the horses' welfare, didn't give her enough time to make improvements. The woman moved to the area from Winnemucca, Nev., in mid-March, she said, to live in a more temperate climate.
"These horses are livestock. They're used to living in fields. ... They're not pets. They don't depend on their care up to a point," Goldman argued.
Krumholz disagreed.
"That is simply ridiculous," she told the jury. "They are absolutely dependent on their owners."
Under the watchful gaze of Judge Michael Gillespie, Krumholz called veterinarian Lisa Cornell, Animal Control Officer Wendy Martinez and sheriff's Deputy Tony Watson to testify, along with Richard Swartling, who helped care for five of Cikanek's horses after they were moved to the Coos County Fairgrounds; and Heidi Erickson, who took in Cikanek's mare and newborn foal. All testified that the defendant didn't provide a minimal level of care.
Only Cikanek spoke in her defense.
Cornell testified that one horse had ring worm. She also said horses with untrimmed hooves like the one nicknamed "Ski Feet," have balance problems. Overgrown hooves put pressure on tendons, can damage joints, and eventually make the horse lame later in life, she said.
"The evidence was they hadn't had hoof care in a long time," Cornell said.
Martinez testified that most of the animals were thin to moderately thin at the time of their confiscation, their feet were in poor condition and she never saw an acceptable amount of drinking water at Cikanek's property near the Kentuck Slough. The animal control officer, who helped get the horses adopted, said all but one gelding have since gained weight. Four of the horses were adopted by members of the Coos County Sheriff's Mounted Posse.
Erickson was the last to testify for the state, saying that when she took in Cikanek's mare and filly, she didn't believe the baby would survive. That first night, her boyfriend spent hours keeping it warm with his own body heat. They fed the filly with replacement milk, because she was too weak to stand and nurse. Krumholz wondered why Cikanek didn't do these things herself.
Cikanek said the filly had nursed on her own, and that the young animal kept leaving a shelter with her mother to lie in the mud because she had stomach ulcers and was more comfortable there.
Because the closing arguments ended late, the six-person-jury didn't have enough time to deliberate on the 11 charges. The jury is expected to return with a verdict in the case today. If convicted, Cikanek could face a fine of $6,250 for the Class A misdemeanor; and $2,500 per B misdemeanor; and up to a year of imprisonment for up to one year for the former, and six months for the latter.
However, Krumholz said she doesn't want to see Cikanek behind bars.
"My goal in this case is not jail for Ms. Cikanek," the ADA said. "She has no criminal history." | Source: The World Link - Oct 9, 2009
Update posted on Oct 12, 2009 - 3:44AM |
The horses and their owner had lived in North Bend for only a few weeks. But it didn’t take long for neighbors to notice the animals’ bony sides, filthy hides, and unusually long hooves.
“There were nine horses that looked too skinny and neighbors were concerned,” Assistant District Attorney Shani Krumholz told six jurors, during the first day of Cikanek’s trial in Coos County Circuit Court.
From March through the first week of May, animal control officers met with owner Bobbye L. Cikanek, a longtime breeder, who told her the animals needed better care. One neighbor even offered to help. But conditions worsened, Krumholz and her witnesses told the jury.
And when a two or three-day-old foal nearly died in a muddy field, Coos County deputies and animal control officers seized the baby and its mother, soon taking the remaining animals as well.
Police charged the defendant with 10 counts of first-degree animal abuse and 10 counts of second-degree animal neglect. On Wednesday, Krumholz argued that the jury should find Cikanek guilty of the A and B misdemeanors, because she didn’t properly care for her animals.
“I’m trying to show what is expected when you own a horse. What’s the standard for appropriate care versus what was actually in existence,” Krumholz said.
Defense Attorney Allen Goldman contends the state doesn’t have enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Plus, Cikanek had no motive to abuse or neglect her animals. The horses were underweight after Cikanek moved them from Winnemucca, Nev., to North Bend in mid-March, he added.
“Essentially, these horses were her old age and retirement,” Goldman told the jury. “She had every reason to keep these horses in good condition.”
Before Judge Michael Gillespie, Krumholz called four witnesses, including Animal Control Officer Rick Hoover, neighbor John Beckmeyer, veterinarian Karl Jernstedt and farrier Wade McKinley, who all described the horses’ conditions.
Meanwhile, Cikanek, a short woman with bobbed brown hair dressed in a white sweater detailed with Pepsi logos, occasionally shook her head and took notes as she listened to testimony.
Beckmeyer, a ranch hand who lives next to Cikanek’s property in the Kentuck Slough area, said he reported his concerns about the horses to animal control officers after regularly witnessing poor conditions. He became especially concerned after the mare dropped her foal, and he saw her lying in the mud.
“They were doing nothing for this poor foal. It was going to freeze to death,” he said.
The horses were underfed and tried to find other food, he testified. That included eating skunk cabbage, buttercup and even wood. Beckmeyer explained that they tore chunks of wood from a small lean-to and chewed. Most bored horses spit them out.
“They were chewing it and swallowing it,” Beckmeyer recalled.
A retired police officer and horse ranch owner, Hoover tried to help. He visited the property repeatedly, made phone calls and gave Cikanek lists to help her improve conditions for her animals.
Hoover said the minimum requirements to maintain a horse are sufficient food, clean potable water and shelter. But since he first met with Cikanek at her home on March 18, those things weren’t provided. He said the horses drank from a small stream, but downstream from where they defecated.
Also, while Cikanek gave the horses high-quality hay, Hoover said they didn’t get enough and were being fed in the mud.
He also was concerned about the horses’ hooves, including one that earned the nickname “Ski Feet” or “Skis” from rescuers, because her hooves curled about seven inches past her feet.
McKinley, who trimmed the horses hooves before and after they were confiscated, said one horse suffered from an abscess in one foot, which he and Cikanek cleaned out, but said the owner failed to keep the infection clean and dry.
“I’d never seen feet let go to that extent unless the horses had been abandoned,” Hoover said.
Despite conditions, Hoover said Cikanek wasn’t ignorant to horse care. She knew “everything you’d expect of anyone with a breeding program.”
Still, he gave her directions, including providing another source of water and hiring a farrier. He said she did get a 90-gallon container of water for the animals, but on one visit, he saw only a half-inch of water inside.
The trial continues today. | Source: The World Link - Oct 8, 2009
Update posted on Oct 12, 2009 - 3:43AM |
The woman accused of neglecting ten horses at her home in North Bend, faced a judge and jury Wednesday, in day one of a two day trial, where she is facing multiple charges of animal abuse and animal neglect.
64 year-old Bobbye Cikanek, sat alongside her court appointed attorney Alan Goldman, in a Coos County Courtroom listening to testimony from neighbors and animal control officers.
Cikanek is facing abuse and neglect charges that stem from a two month long investigation from March 18th to May 13th, where animal control officers and sheriff's deputies looked into the living conditions of ten Tennessee Walking Horses being kept at Cikanek's North Bend residence.
Cikanek's next door neighbor John Beckmeyer took the witness stand, and testified on the horses living conditions and their overall health.
"The feet were so long on the front of the horses that the hooves had grown, had not been trimmed, I don't think ever," says Beckmeyer.
When asked if the horses, in his opinion were receiving adequate care, he replied no.
Animal Control Officer Richard Hoover, says he made multiple trips to the residence and tried to work with Cikanek to improve the conditions on her property but it never happened.
"There was a lot of mud and horses laying in the mud. The areas where she was feeding these animals was in mud. I had never seen feet let go to that extent. I'd seen that in abandoned horses where their feet were either so long or so broken and chipped, that it affects the horses life," says Hoover. | Source: KCBY - Oct 7, 2009
Update posted on Oct 12, 2009 - 3:47AM |
The former owner of 10 malnourished horses will be going to trial in October to face multiple counts of animal abuse and related charges.
Earlier this week, Coos County Circuit Court judge Michael Gillespie set a two-day, six-person jury trial for Bobbye L. Cikanek.
The North Bend woman pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of first-degree animal abuse and 10 counts of second-degree animal neglect. The trial begins Oct. 7. Cikanek was released on her own recognizance under the order not to possess any horses.
Last month, the 63-year-old forfeited ownership of the horses, nine of which have since been adopted, said Coos County Sheriff’s deputy Tony Watson. The last is being cared for by an animal control officer.
Deputies and animal control officers first confiscated the horses on May 13.
“They are all happy, healthy. ... They are definitely better off now,” said Watson. “It’s been a very good result for the animals.”
Coos County Assistant District Attorney Shani Krumholz said all the charges are considered A and B misdemeanors. Those are punishable by a fine of $6,250 for a Class A misdemeanor; and $2,500 for a Class B misdemeanor; and up to a year of imprisonment for up to one year for the former, and six months for the latter. She is compiling a list of witnesses and gathering evidence.
Watson said he’d prefer to see Cikanek receive a fine than jail time if she is convicted. He’s not surprised the case is going to trial.
“She has the right to defend her side of the story,” Watson said. | Source: The World Link - Aug 12, 2009
Update posted on Oct 12, 2009 - 3:42AM |
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