Prosecutor: Horse-abuse reports not all accurate

The prosecutor handling the investigation into the alleged theft and abuse of a Mitchell woman’s barrel-racing horse says the version of events that was reported early on in the media and on blogs was not accurate.

Tom Maher, the state’s attorney for Stanley County, declined to identify any specific report but said he was referring generally to reports that “there was a horse that was stolen and tortured.”

“What was reported back early — shortly after the Fourth of July, the initial report on what happened — I think that was not correct, at least based on the evidence that I’m looking at right here on my desk,” Maher said in a recent phone interview with The Daily Republic.

When asked if he meant that the horse was not stolen or tortured, Maher answered this way:

“Law enforcement is investigating. They give me information, and then there’s more information that comes in over time. And that can dramatically change the picture as these pieces of the puzzle come in. But I can’t take that initial report and run with that. I can’t just clip that out of the newspaper, attach it to my complaint, and say ‘Judge, here, let’s go after this guy.’ ”

Maher said he could not elaborate on the evidence that has been gathered thus far, but he said much of what the public has heard is “just pure nonsense.” Many possible scenarios in the case must be investigated before he can decide whether to file criminal charges, he said.

To help make his point, Maher drew a comparison to a missing vehicle.

“Somebody takes your car. Is that grand theft?” asked Maher, to which the interviewer replied, “not necessarily.”

“Right,” Maher continued. “So we’ve got to look at different things like a joyride, or maybe somebody told you that you could take the car. There’s a lot of factors that could come into play.

“Then let’s say the car got hurt. Let’s say it was in an accident. There can be different kinds of accidents where things are damaged. It can be intentional, accidental, there’s a variety of ways things can be hurt.”

Media reports and blog posts about the horse, Dually, and its owner, Wendy Halweg, have been numerous. Most of the early reports in the media were attributed to Halweg and Stanley County Sheriff Brad Rathbun.

Halweg told reporters that her horse was stolen from the Fort Pierre rodeo grounds during the early morning hours of July 5. She made a final check on the horse at about 4:30 a.m., she said, and then went to sleep in a bunk about 50 feet away. She alleged that the horse was taken sometime afterward and was found penned up hours later at a different location.

The horse reportedly suffered severe injuries, but Halweg declined to discuss the nature of those injuries during a July 7 interview with The Daily Republic. She did not return two recent phone messages left by the newspaper.

Halweg told the Pierre Capital Journal for a July 14 news story that the horse is recovering and “is not going to die. But his ability to ever perform again is in question.”

Public condemnation of the unidentified, alleged perpetrators was swift and furious. Comment sections on media Web sites and blogs filled up with calls for justice and expressions of sympathy for Halweg and the horse, and a bank account was established to accept donations on their behalf. Sheriff Rathbun said he hoped to make arrests in a matter of days.

Then, the sheriff handed his file over to State’s Attorney Maher for a decision on charges.

“I’m kind of a stick in the mud in the system,” Maher told The Daily Republic, “because I am a check on charging things out. And I don’t pull the trigger on any man until I’m satisfied that there is evidence there to convict.”

In a July 19 story that was attributed to a Pierre radio station and was sent across the state via The Associated Press, Maher was paraphrased as saying that he was not sure whether a crime was actually committed.

That comment prompted The Daily Republic to call Maher last week and ask for clarification. It was during that call that Maher made the comments about the early media and blog reports being bogus.

Maher also said it’s common for investigations to last months or more than a year, and he expressed a desire to help Halweg.

“I think that she’s been cooperative, and that’s definitely a piece of what we need is witnesses that have some personal knowledge to come forward and tell what they know,” Maher said.

Tags: wendy halweg, news, local, state, dually