By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

IMLAY TOWNSHIP, Mich. — For Ellen Mills and her family, the legal nightmare is finally over.

After more than two years defending themselves against a variety of charges related to their ownership of various farm animals as well as dogs, the Mills’ legal entanglements are now just a memory. The last of the animal abuse and neglect charges brought against them by the Lapeer County prosecutor were dismissed earlier this month.

“They dismissed everything. All the animal charges, everything,” said Mills from her home in Imlay Township. “They asked for $5 to help recoup their expenses and the judge wouldn’t even give them that. It was also determined they had searched the property illegally. They had piled on and on probably 10 charges. Just stupid, stupid stuff.”

It all started more than two years ago, in March 2007, when numerous police showed up at the Mills’ property and arrested the adults, which included Ellen, her husband, Mark, their daughter, Kate, 20, and son, Andrew, 19. At the time Animal Control officers removed several dead lambs from the family’s barn, a dead horse and several dogs that Animal Control contended were undernourished.

The Mills defended themselves against a charge of not properly burying a horse by saying it couldn’t be buried immediately because the ground was frozen. In an interview at the time, Kate said the USDA had asked her to save the dead lambs because they might have come from a scrapie-positive ewe and that the horse had been undernourished because it had a disease.

They denied that the dogs were undernourished and also denied they were being abused or neglected. Judge Laura Barnard, who heard all the evidence in the case over the two-year period, agreed.
Late in 2007 Barnard dismissed all charges against Kate, agreeing with the defense that she was innocent because she was away at college during the time the alleged abuse took place. That summer all felony animal torture charges against Ellen, Mark and Andrew had been dismissed. The judge agreed with the defense’s contention that the horse had not been starved.

Byron Konschuh, the Lapeer County prosecutor in charge of the case, said at the time he was a little surprised at the dismissal of the charges. His position was that the horse wasn’t being fed properly.

“It finally got fed and ate so voraciously that it choked,” he said of the horse in question, shortly after the judge’s decision.
Last year all charges against Andrew were also dropped, since it was decided he had no ownership over or responsibility for caring for the animals. In other words, he was simply living with his parents.
Finally, earlier this month Barnard dismissed all the remaining misdemeanor charges, except a charge of having a dog without a proper license.

Ellen said that county officials, in desperation, added on many charges against her family.

“They realize they are wrong, they were getting desperate and they realized they were getting sued,” she said.

She said although their legal problems seem to be over, the abuse from the public and the fallout from what’s happened may never be over. The failed case against the Mills has already cost Lapeer County taxpayers a lot of money and, she said, may end up costing them a lot more before it’s over.

She said after charges were filed against them, their address was posted at a pet abuse website, and that someone threw stones at her daughter from the road.

After the charges and arrests, Kate was suspended from being the 4-H queen and Andrew was not allowed to attend his prom. Kate, a recent graduate of Michigan State University with a major in animal science, has given up her longtime plans to become a veterinarian because a “paper trail” of the charges will always be available on the Internet. Both of them have filed lawsuits against a Lapeer County sheriff’s deputy and county officials.

“I graduated from animal science school, but vet school isn’t going to happen,” Kate said. “My name is on the Internet and everything. It doesn’t matter if the charges were dropped a couple months later. The first thing you see on Google is that I got charged.”
She is thinking about going to law school instead and possibly specializing in animal-related issues. “Since I was three years old, I wanted to be a vet,” Kate said.

Ellen said she and her husband are preparing their own lawsuit. “We’re in the process of getting the paperwork together to file a suit right now,” she said.