Hopkins accepts plea for cruelty to animals News Staff Tue, 04/16/2024 - 1:02 pm
- (YCSO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) After being arrested in September 2023 for a charge of cruelty to livestock animals, Hadley Hopkins took a plea agreement last week for six months deferred adjudication.
Leader Staff Report editor@grahamleader.com
After being arrested in September 2023 for a charge of cruelty to livestock animals, Hadley Hopkins took a plea agreement last week for six months deferred adjudication.
According to the general complaint filed Sept. 15, 2023, Hopkins did not provide necessary food, care or shelter for 91 horses, two longhorns and one donkey. An order for possession of animals was filed Sept. 29, 2023 to seize 12 horses, one donkey and two longhorn cows.
He accepted a plea Wednesday, April 10 for six months deferred adjudication, fines in the amount of $1,000 and $312 in court costs. He pleaded nolo contendere in the case, where the defendant takes a plea of no contest and does not admit or dispute a charge.
Deferred adjudication is a special form of judge-ordered community supervision which permits a defendant to accept responsibility for a crime without an actual conviction being placed on the record.
Hopkins was arrested Sept. 12, 2023 on the charge. One dead horse was found on the property belonging to Hopkins, according to a probable cause affidavit.
YCSO deputies responded to investigate possible malnourished horses Sept. 1, 2023 at a property owned by Hopkins in the 4000 block of Finis Road.
The deputies noticed around 40 malnourished horses which were in need of “immediate nutritional and medical care.”
The deputies observed there was no food in the troughs and the grass had been eaten to the dirt. The initial investigations determined there were around 60 more horses free ranging on the property which the deputies were not able to observe.
YCSO requested and were granted a search warrant to re-enter the property and look for other evidence of criminal activity such as animal carcasses, malnourished animals, condition of forage areas and stock ponds used for watering.
“Once on the property with the assistance of Dr. Forrest (Nick) Burnham, a veterinarian, (he) advised us that the horses were in immediate need of food and other medical assistance. Dr. Burnham advised that the horses (were) extremely malnourished,” the affidavit states. “One of the horses on the property was incapable of getting up and Dr. Burnham advised the horse needed to be put down.”
The YCSO investigation into the property also determined that numerous stock tanks were completely dry and one, which had very little water, was covered in red and green algae.
The horses were seized as criminal evidence for the purpose of maintaining and restoring them to health under veterinary guidance and for preserving evidence. Due to the large number of horses, YCSO was granted a request to assist the horses in their recovery on Hopkins’ property.
“(The request was granted) that the maintenance and restorative process be conducted on… (Hopkins’) property to the exclusion of the owner as the property is also evidence of a crime and continuous maintenance of the horses thereafter,” the affidavit states.
Hopkins was booked Sept. 12, 2023 into the Young County Jail on $4,000 bond and was released the same day.
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