Just when you think the story has gotten as sad and bizarre as it can be, now the man who's facing horse abuse charges and has been suspended from his $84,000/year job as an assistant director of the state department of agriculture has been arrested on kidnapping charges!
Here's part of the story from The State -- front page, above the fold:
An assistant state agriculture commissioner is in jail — charged with kidnapping after police say he threatened and detained a Humane Society investigator looking into allegations of abused horses at the farm where he lives.
James W. Trexler, 48, also is charged with five counts of ill treatment of animals. His mother and brother also face charges of ill treatment of animals.
Trexler and his mother and brother — Hazelene E. Trexler, 70, and Terry A. Trexler, 44 — were arrested at 8 p.m. Wednesday by the Richland County Sheriff’s Fugitive Task Force at James Trexler’s home on Derby Lane in Hopkins, Sheriff Leon Lott said.
Hazelene Trexler is charged with 28 counts of ill treatment of animals; Terry Trexler is charged with 23 counts of ill treatment of animals.
Lott called the treatment of the horses “severe and barbaric,” adding, “the Trexlers have proven time and again that they have no business owning any animals.”
The fugitive task force was called in to apprehend the Trexlers because investigators “received information that they were getting ready to flee,” Lott said, but he wouldn’t elaborate.
James Trexler’s kidnapping charge stems from a Feb. 13 incident during which a Humane Society investigator was parked on property adjacent to the Hopkins farm where he lives to investigate allegations of mistreatment of horses there, Lott said.
When Trexler saw she had a camera, Lott said, he drove his truck onto the other property and blocked the drive so she couldn’t leave. He then threatened and tried to intimidate her into giving him the camera, Lott said.
Trexler refused to let her leave until a sheriff’s deputy arrived, Lott said.
The kidnapping charge, a felony, is punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Ill-treatment of animals is a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine up to $2,000.
All three are in the Richland County jail, awaiting bail hearings. (more here)
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