Horse neglect - dozens seized, 5 found dead
Roanoke, TX (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Jun 5, 2004
County: Tarrant
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Elizabeth Rohr
Case Updates: 11 update(s) available
Five dead horses and more than two dozen others in declining health were removed Sunday from the Wise County ranch of a Southlake doctor who is serving probation for animal cruelty.
Elizabeth Rohr, a family practitioner, is serving probation for failing to properly care for horses she kept on her 837-acre ranch.
Dr. Rohr has not been charged with any new crimes. A warrant for animal cruelty has been issued against her, said her Fort Worth attorney, Gerald Staton. He said the doctor would turn herself in this week.
Last year, Dr. Rohr pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and was fined $1,250. As part of the plea bargain, the doctor was ordered to complete 80 hours of community service and serve two years' probation.
In the recent case, Dr. Rohr is accused of abusing horses in her care.
"We found 27 animals that were emaciated or very sick," said Wise County Sheriff Doug Whitehead.
The sheriff's department is investigating operations at the doctor's ranch in Paradise.
Wise County officials and the North Texas Humane Society seized the horses after a search of Ms. Rohr's property Sunday. They found five horses had died and were in various stages of decomposition, officials said.
Mr. Staton denied that the horses were mistreated. He said they were in good condition � and some were overweight.
He said Dr. Rohr has three caretakers who tend to her herd of 300 horses. She spends thousands of dollars monthly to care for the animals, he said.
Dr. Rohr has horses of various ages including a Paint horse valued at $20,000. There are also Arabians and exotic ponies, Mr. Staton said.
Officials said they launched the investigation after Wise County animal control officers received several complaints regarding the condition of horses on the property.
Case UpdatesA medical doctor, wife, mother of seven, horse rancher and breeder, Dr. Elizabeth Rohr had a career many would envy. But all that started to unravel six years ago, when a Southlake municipal judge removed 22 horses from her property after allegations of mistreatment. Since then, Rohr, 46, has been in court in Denton and Wise counties on multiple charges of animal abuse. A federal judge in Collin County jailed her for more than 70 days on a contempt of court charge when Rohr refused to withdraw a legal challenge to the sale of her Southlake ranch, which she had lost to bankruptcy. She's been called unbalanced and dangerous -- and accused of hoarding and endangering animals and even threatening her own children's lives. In June, 2005, Denton County judge David Garcia called her a "Dr. Jekyll, Miss Hyde" as he sentenced her to jail for animal cruelty. He lauded her reputation as a doctor but said she failed miserably as a horse person entrusted in the care of animals. In Rohr's words, she's seen by many in the public as an "evil horse-killer."
On March 13, 2006, she was scheduled to appear in another Denton County court on the most serious charge against her: kidnapping her children after a court determined that they should live with their father. She faces up to six years in a state jail if convicted of the three counts of interfering with child custody. She admits that she does not expect to win the court case. "She's dug herself a pretty deep hole," said her ex-husband, Craig Saunders. Through it all, Rohr has remained defiant, repeatedly challenging the courts' right to direct her affairs and battling a system she says is unfair and immoral. "All I can do is what Daniel did: go on in there, knowing full well they are going to throw me in the lion's den," Rohr said. A lifelong passion Elizabeth Anne Rohr was born in Massillon, Ohio, the second of six children. Her love of art and horses surfaced early, at age 4, when she found a crayon and started drawing a herd of horses on a wall at her home. At 6, she got her first pony, triggering a lifelong passion for the animals, she said.
But at 13, when her father suggested she grow up to become a farmer and rancher, she declined. Initially she wanted to become an artist, then she took an aptitude test that suggested another option: medicine. "When my father said he thought I could step into his place and start milking cows, I said, 'Mmm ... medicine doesn't sound bad. Medicine would be OK,'" she said with a laugh.
Bright and focused, Rohr was 16 when she left high school a year early and entered a college honors program at the University of Delaware. At 21, she entered the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, where she met fellow medical student Craig Saunders during the first week of school. The couple soon married. At 27, when she graduated, Rohr had already given birth to the first two of her children. For the next few years, she took occasional time off to care for her growing family but completed her residency and practiced medicine for three years at the Gallup Indian Medical Center to pay off government loans. "My passion for medicine grew as I did it," Rohr said. "It wasn't a burning passion through medical school because as a student you had no concept of what it is to be a doctor. But when you start working it -- that's when you know."
The family then moved to North Texas, and Rohr opened her general practice in Roanoke in 1997. Soon after arriving, Rohr embraced her other passion -- horses -- and her trouble with the law began. In 1998, authorities in Montague County received complaints about the condition of her horses. An investigation revealed nothing objectionable, officials said. Two years later, after neighbors in Wise County complained that Rohr's horses were sick and underfed, she signed an agreement to ensure the proper feeding, veterinary care and grooming of the animals. Also in 2000, a Southlake judge found that Rohr mistreated 22 horses. Although she faced no criminal charges, the horses were removed. In August 2002, she was convicted of animal abuse in Wise County, and 31 horses were seized. Rohr was placed on two years of deferred-adjudication probation, provided that she commit no other crimes. From August 2004 to June 2005, Rohr was convicted twice more -- in Wise and Denton counties -- of animal abuse and sentenced to one year in jail. Both cases are under appeal. At the same time Rohr was battling the court system over her horses, she faced troubles at home.
In 2001, she and Saunders, an orthopedic surgeon in Bedford, separated. They were divorced in 2003. Rohr initially kept the children, but in a bitterly contested dispute, Saunders got legal custody of the children. Within hours of a judge's ruling, Rohr packed up the five children still living at home and took off to South Texas. She was arrested in San Benito, near the Mexican border, on Aug. 25, 2004. It was the last time she saw her children, she said. Even after losing horses, Rohr said, she trusted the legal system and believed that it would be fair. That changed, however, after an incident with Southlake police in October 2004. Rohr says police officers stopped her Toyota on Oct. 21, 2004, handcuffed her, pulled her out of the vehicle and slammed her against the car. She calls it police brutality. Police officials say officers made a traffic stop, discovered that Rohr had three outstanding Wise County warrants and tried to take her into custody. Rohr went limp and refused to get out of the vehicle, forcing police to remove her, according to police reports. "I'm a person just like you," Rohr said in a recent interview. "But back then I didn't know much of anything about the law. I believed the law was here to serve and protect me. But I was an extremely naive person." When mug shots were taken after she was arrested, she refused to face the camera, so an officer had to hold her chin up. After she was released, she started learning common law from new friends she made in the Republic of Texas, although she says she is not a member. She selected an Indian nation, the Pembina Nation, and adopted them as her tribe, although her name doesn't appear on their official rolls.
Defending herself in bankruptcy court late last year, Rohr consumed hours challenging the court's jurisdiction over her and fine points of law. In December 2005, the judge finally ordered her to jail until she stopped blocking the sale of her Southlake ranch, which she lost in bankruptcy. Rohr spent 74 days in custody before agreeing. Saunders said he is puzzled by the changes in his ex-wife. Some of her actions have been misguided and lacking in judgment, he said, such as leaving with five kids in the dead of night, which could have led to an accident, he said. "She didn't use to be like this -- she was smart, bright and fun," he said. "We're at a loss as to why she continues to do this." Saunders said he misses the person Rohr used to be. "She always said family was important, as was living out in the country," he said. "Those are dreams I would like to have shared with her." Rohr's mother, Melva Rohr, however, believes that her daughter is the same strong, intelligent person she has always been. "She did not change -- she just learned some things, and now she is double the same person she was before," said Melva Rohr, who lives in Ohio. But Rohr's entanglements have affected the entire family, Rohr's mother said. It was a bit of a shock when an FBI agent knocked on her back door in Ohio after Rohr took her children, she said. "This has been a terrible time for us," she said. "These kinds of things don't happen in my family. We are the kind of people who think right always wins."
The allegation that Rohr threatened the safety of her children came from her oldest child. After she disappeared, Brandon Saunders signed an affidavit claiming his mother told him she would rather hurt the children than allow Saunders to raise them. This document allowed police to call an Amber Alert. But Brandon Saunders said he now regrets the affidavit, although he declines to say exactly why. "I wish 100 percent every day I had never done that," he said. "Those were difficult times and a screwy situation, and I was embarrassed about the whole thing afterward." Elizabeth Rohr said she refuses to stop challenging the legal system. She's keeping her practice open in Roanoke and says her patients still number in the hundreds. Selinda Vernon of Keller, 51, has been a patient nearly two years and is grateful for Rohr's help. "I've seen many doctors, and she gives probably the best diagnosis I have ever seen," said Vernon, who suffers from a series of autoimmune diseases. "She's improved my quality of life. She put me on the medication I really needed to get things under control." During her stints in jail, Rohr kept in touch with her patients over the phone and through her office. Ultimately, Rohr said she wants people to know she is going to do what she believes is right. "I've tried being nice before, and it doesn't work," she said. "I have tried the soft-swab approach. "The bottom line is I'm not a member of their bar and not in the club. I can't negotiate with their courts."
Rohr's hearing was scheduled to begin March 13, 2006 in Judge L. Dee Shipman's 211th Judicial District Court in Denton.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Source: Star Telegram - March 13, 2006
Update posted on Mar 14, 2006 - 10:12PM |
An attorney representing the company that purchased Elizabeth Rohr's Southlake ranch urged a bankruptcy judge Tuesday to keep the Roanoke physician in jail so she couldn't retaliate against them through so-called paper terrorism.
Minutes later, Rohr was ordered to remain in federal custody for another month -- unless she withdraws her legal challenge to the ranch's sale.
Davor Rukavina, a Dallas lawyer representing Spectra Land, accused Rohr in court of being a member of the Republic of Texas, a separatist group known for its "paper terrorism" tactics of flooding courts with frivolous lawsuits and property liens.
Rohr denies any connection to the Republic of Texas, but Rukavina contends that Rohr is dangerous.
"We believe Dr. Rohr has learned nothing ... and will continue her war against us and this court," Rukavina told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brenda Rhoades of Plano.
Rohr is in her third week of federal custody for contempt of court because she continues to block the sale of her 42-acre ranch, which she lost during bankruptcy proceedings.
On Tuesday she again refused to withdraw pending action notices she filed against the forced sale of the ranch in August to Spectra Land. The notices are designed to inform people who own real estate that there is a claim on their property.
The notices prevent Spectra from developing the property until the claims are removed.
Rhoades ordered Rohr to remain in federal custody until at least 4:30 p.m. Jan. 10. She could be released earlier if she obeys the court, Rhoades said.
Rohr told the judge that she does not recognize the court's jurisdiction in the sale of her ranch because she has appealed the bankruptcy decision.
Rohr, 46, already faces two one-year jail sentences. She was convicted of animal cruelty in Wise and Denton counties in August 2004 and June 2005. She remains free while appealing those cases.
She also faces trial in Denton County in March on accusations that she left town with her five young children after her ex-husband won custody of them in August 2004.
Rohr has said the land cannot be sold for bankruptcy claims because she had put her assets into a trust in 2003 for her children.
One of Rohr's assertions in court is that she is an American Indian.
On her bankruptcy documents, she claims to be a member of the Pembina Nation, an entity the Anti-Defamation League says is part of the sovereign citizen movement, whose members also engage in paper terrorism.
Navin C. Naidu of Seattle, a judge for the Pembina Nation, says his group is legitimate -- but that there are imposters using the group's name to perpetrate scams.
Naidu said Rohr is not a member of the legitimate tribe, and her name is not in the nation's tribal register.
Rohr denies any connection to the Republic of Texas.
"I'm not a member," Rohr said as she was led away from court in chains.
The Texas Medical Board is monitoring her legal situation to see whether her general practitioner's license should be suspended, board spokeswoman Jill Wiggins said. | Source: Star-Telegram - Nov. 30, 2005
Update posted on Nov 30, 2005 - 11:36PM |
The attorney for Dr. Elizabeth Rohr told County Court-at-Law Judge Melton Cude that his client was not mentally prepared to go forward with her appeal for a new trial Monday morning.
Patrick Davis said Rohr had been denied medications she needs while in jail and that has affected her mental state.
"Without (the medication), she's not all there," Davis said. " ... I observed her (Monday) morning and she's not all there. I don't feel confident in her taking the stand."
Davis also said he had made "numerous requests" for copies of the transcript from the hearing to recuse Cude from hearing further evidence in the case, but he had not received those transcripts.
Administrative Judge John Bradshaw denied the motion to recuse Cude Oct. 4. Davis argued that Cude showed bias against Rohr in comments made in court and in the newspaper.
Davis said he wanted Cude to review those documents in order for Rohr to receive her due process.
In response, County Attorney Greg Lowery said that Davis had had ample time since the recusal hearing to request the transcripts but only did so in the middle of last week.
Cude said he wasn't sure if he could even rule on the matter since the hearing dealt with his recusal.
Cude also said that rescheduling could be difficult because of a busy schedule in his court. After several minutes of trying to find an open time, Cude reset the hearing for Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 9 a.m.
Rohr is appealing for a new trial after pleading guilty to probation violation and 17 new counts of animal cruelty Aug. 31. Rohr has said in court documents that she was not told of her rights to a jury trial by her previous attorney, Gerald Staton, and she did not know she was pleading guilty to the new charges when she made her plea in exchange for a year in jail. | Source: Wise County Messenger - Nov 4, 2004
Update posted on Nov 10, 2004 - 12:37AM |
| For the second time in two months, a Wise County judge has survived attempts to be removed from the criminal case of a Southlake doctor accused of abusing horses. Judge John Bradshaw made the ruling in Wise County on Monday. Dr. Elizabeth Rohr had filed motions to remove Judge Melton Cude from hearing evidence in her efforts for a new trial. Dr. Rohr pleaded guilty in August to probation violation and animal-abuse charges before Judge Cude. Her attorney said the judge had formed a bias about her case before a plea agreement had been reached. A motion for a new trial has been set for Nov. 1 before Judge Cude. Dr. Rohr, 45, was released last week from jail after posting bond. | Source: Dalls News - Oct 5, 2004
Update posted on Oct 4, 2004 - 7:29PM |
| Patrick Davis, an attorney for Dr. Elizabeth Rohr, who is serving a year in jail for abusing horses, filed court motions Monday asking for a new trial and for Judge Melton Cude to be "removed from any further involvement in this case." In August, Rohr pleaded guilty to violating probation and abusing horses. In the motions filed Monday, Rohr said she would not have agreed to the plea if she had known about 17 additional counts of animal cruelty filed against her the morning of the plea. She also said she did not know that she was entitled to a jury trial. Cude declined to comment. Wise County Attorney Greg Lowery did not return a phone call seeking comment. | Source: Star Telegram - Sept 21, 2004
Update posted on Sep 24, 2004 - 5:43AM |
Dr. Elizabeth Rohr received a one-year jail sentence Tuesday morning in Wise County after pleading guilty to 17 counts of animal abuse charges and two counts of probation violation. The Southlake physician has also sold her horses, according to her attorney.
Gerald Staton said his client wanted to resolve all her criminal charges in Wise County.
"It's not about justice, it's about damage control," Mr. Staton said.
Mr. Staton said Dr. Rohr was in good spirits, but is concerned about her children.
As she was led out of the Wise County courthouse in Decatur in handcuffs Dr. Rohr told reporters, "That's justice in America."
Wise County prosecutor Greg Lowery said the plea agreement was a fair way to resolve the charges in Wise County.
"If you violated the same offense you're showing the court you didn't learn anything from the leniency you were given in the first place," Mr. Lowery said.
Dr. Rohr was transferred Tuesday back to the Denton County Jail. It's not clear where she will serve the one-year jail sentence.
Dr. Rohr was sentenced to two years' probation last year after pleading no contest to animal abuse charges.
She was ordered to return to court after probation violation charges were filed against her in June for having horses in deteriorating health on her 837-acre ranch in Paradise, officials said.
Dr. Rohr is being held in the Denton County Jail on five counts of interfering with child custody after she fled with her five young children last week, violating a judge's order. No bail has been set.
Steve Wass, Dr. Rohr's fianc�, said she recently authorized the sale of the remainder of her herd - 180 horses - to the manager of her Paradise ranch. Mr. Staton confirmed Tuesday that the horses have been sold.
Mr. Wass said some of the money was used to pay her ranch manager back salary. Some of the money went into an account to manage the ranch.
He declined to specify the dollar amount of the sale.
Mr. Wass said Dr. Rohr granted him power of attorney but Dr. Rohr gave him permission to sell the animals.
"She doesn't like it, obviously," he said, of her emotions. "But she's in jail because of those horses. I believe it's in her best interest."
Mr. Wass said some of the animals from the Wise County ranch have been taken to auction. He said none of them so far have been sold to a slaughterhouse.
But he said any of the animals that lack documentation or are deemed too wild to sell could be sold to slaughter.
Mr. Wass said all of Dr. Rohr's horses were removed from her Southlake ranch to Wise County.
He said, for now, most of the herd would remain in Wise County.
Dr. Rohr, who until recently worked as an emergency room physician in Abilene and San Benito, has become a familiar face in courtrooms.
In addition to court appearances in Wise County, she has appeared before judges in Southlake Municipal Court and Denton County.
A Southlake judge dismissed a civil petition June 29 against Dr. Rohr alleging that the animals on her Southlake property were neglected and malnourished. At that time, Dr. Rohr agreed to relinquish ownership of 22 horses and was barred from keeping more than eight horses on her property.
Last week, a Denton County judge ordered Dr. Rohr to turn over custody of her five minor children to her ex-husband, Dr. Craig Saunders of Keller.
Instead, Dr. Rohr fled to San Benito in South Texas with the children, saying her ex-husband is abusive. Dr. Saunders has denied the charges.
She was found two days later after officials sounded an Amber Alert. The children were unharmed and reunited with their father.
Dr. Rohr was arrested Aug. 25 and returned to Denton County where she has been held since Thursday.
Dr. Rohr also is to be arraigned Sept. 7 in Denton County on additional animal cruelty charges. | Source: The Dallas Morning News - August 31, 2004
Update posted on Sep 1, 2004 - 6:22PM |
Southlake physician Dr. Elizabeth Rohr was charged Thursday with interfering with child custody. A judge denied bond.
Rohr and her five children were discovered Wednesday in San Benito after an amber alert was issued.
Rohr was arrested. and the unharmed children were turned over to her ex-husband, who has legal custody of them.
He flew home with the youngsters Wednesday night.
Rohr and the children disappeared after a judge ordered her to turn the youngsters over to her ex-husband, Dr. Craig Saunders, on Monday.
Rohr last year pleaded no contest to two counts of animal cruelty after five dead horses were found on her ranch. She was sentenced to probation and fined.
She faces arraignment September seventh in Denton on charges she neglected 18 horses at her Southlake farm.
She also allegedly tried to escape from the San Benito hospital where she was being held after fainting when taken into custody.
Rohr, who had been accused of making death threats against the children, denied she intended to harm the youngsters. | Source: KWTX
Update posted on Aug 27, 2004 - 6:41AM |
Southlake Dr. Elizabeth Rohr and the 5 youngsters for whom an Amber Alert was issued Wednesday were located in San Benito, just south of Harlingen, police said.
The woman has been taken into custody. The youngsters are unharmed.
Rohr and the children disappeared after a judge ordered her to turn the youngsters over to her ex-husband, Dr. Craig Saunders,
on Monday.
Rohr last year pleaded no contest to two counts of animal cruelty after five dead horses were found on her ranch. She was sentenced to probation and fined.
She faces arraignment Sept. 7 in Denton on charges she neglected 18 horses at her Southlake farm. | Source: KWTX
Update posted on Aug 27, 2004 - 6:40AM |
A Southlake physician accused of abusing horses cannot be located, along with five of her children, police and her ex-husband said Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
Dr. Elizabeth Rohr's disappearance has caused concern because she has threatened the children with harm, stated David Cook of Arlington, attorney for her ex-husband, Craig Saunders.
Craig Saunders and Rohr's estranged sister say Rohr had threatened to go to Mexico or the Caribbean if she ever lost custody of her children. A temporary agreement Monday granted her ex-husband custody, Saunders said.
Southlake police did not issue a warrant for her arrest Tuesday because police are still investigating.
Rohr's defense attorney, Gerald Staton, said he did not hear from his client Tuesday and does not know where she is.
The doctor has been in the news in the last several months.
She faces potential jail time and fines from criminal animal-cruelty cases in Southlake and Wise County, where she owns a ranch in Paradise.
On August 31, Rohr has a probation hearing in Decatur. That hearing has been delayed four times -- twice for Rohr's health reasons and twice because of court motions.
Wise County Judge Melton Cude said if Rohr does not show up, a warrant for her arrest will be issued, and the trial will continue.
"With or without her, we're going on," he said.
On Sept. 7, an arraignment is scheduled in Denton County on 22 counts of animal abuse. Rohr's Southlake home is in Denton County.
The cases have attracted national attention.
Animal lovers have closely followed the trials. The Wise County attorney's office has received phone calls and e-mails from around the world. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals fired off a letter to officials involved.
Saunders, also a physician, said he became concerned with Rohr's parenting in part because of the way she treated her animals.
He said the two were in family court Monday, where Saunders said he was granted custody until a Sept. 17 hearing. They have two other children, ages 20 and 22.
Rohr agreed to turn over her children to Saunders by 8 p.m. Monday, he said. When she had not arrived by 9 p.m., he said, he drove to her home in Southlake.
She, the children and her cars were gone, but the animals were still there, said Saunders' fiance, Carol Fowler.
They called Southlake police. The children did not attend school Tuesday, Cook stated. | Source: Star-Telegram
Update posted on Aug 26, 2004 - 9:10PM |
The Southlake physician was charged with additonal charges, Monday August 2, 2004, in Denton County with 18 criminal counts of animal cruelty.
In June 2004 , authorities seized about 20 horses from Dr. Elizabeth Rohr's Southlake property in Denton County. In a civil court agreement reached by prosecutors and her defense attorneys, Rohr relinquished ownership of those horses.
The new charges stem from the same seizure.
Rohr has faced numerous accusations of neglecting horses in Southlake and Wise County, where she owns a ranch in Paradise. She has never served jail time.
A misdemeanor animal cruelty conviction is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Rohr also will be in court Tuesday August 10, 2004, in Wise County, where a judge will hear evidence of whether she violated her probation. | Source: StarTelegram.com
Update posted on Aug 6, 2004 - 12:17PM |
A Wise County civil hearing to determine whether a Southlake doctor mistreated 27 horses began Monday, two days after police seized additional animals from her Southlake property.
Wise County Judge C.D. Archer heard testimony Monday concerning custody of the animals seized last week from Dr. Elizabeth Anne Rohr's 837-acre Wise County ranch. Wise County Sheriff Doug Whitehead said the horses appeared to be malnourished and had untreated injuries. Five others were found dead on the property.
The judge could return the 27 horses to Rohr, leave them in the county's care or place them with the Humane Society of North Texas.
The Southlake horses were turned over to the Humane Society of North Texas for care and evaluation. A municipal civil hearing set for June 22 will determine the custody of those animals.
Rohr could face criminal charges in both cases. A charge of cruelty to animals, a Class A misdemeanor, carries a fine up to $4,000 and/or a year in jail upon conviction, police officials said.
Rohr has been accused three times of neglecting horses but was charged only once, in 2002, with 22 counts of animal cruelty. She pleaded no contest to two counts in July and was ordered to pay $1,250 in fines and perform 80 hours of community service. The horses in that case were taken in by the Humane Society and adopted out. | | Update posted on Jun 15, 2004 - 10:11AM |
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