MAINE -- A Cumberland County sheriff’s sergeant and a variety of municipal and state animal welfare officials say that Raymond resident Julie Sutherland has illegally portrayed herself as a government animal welfare agent multiple times.
But Sutherland’s attorney, John Campbell, says his client never impersonated any state or federal officials and that the state has produced no evidence to back up such claims.
Sutherland was issued a summons by the sheriff’s department in March for impersonating a federal welfare agent. Since then, the state has charged Sutherland with two counts of impersonating a public servant, theft by deception, forgery and tampering with a witness.
Failing a plea bargain, the case could go to trial as early as Sept. 22. On June 11, Cumberland County Superior Court Justice William Brodrick ordered that Sutherland refrain from direct or indirect contact with four individuals involved in the transfer of a 9-year-old mare, Jazz, in February.
Reached at her home on Leach Hill Road in Raymond, Sutherland declined to comment on the charges.
In a written statement to the sheriff’s department, Kari Johnson of Casco, who claims ownership of Jazz, said that Sutherland, posing as a federal animal protection agent, tricked her into signing lease permission papers for the horse, which was being boarded at Angel Wing Farms in Poland.
According to Johnson, Sutherland told her the horse was being “seriously neglected” at the Poland farm.
“She said she had an open investigation on the farm and because I signed a boarding contract she had the authority to help me remove her and take her to another barn,” Johnson wrote. “She basically put it to me as if I had no choice but to do exactly as she said or I would be the one in trouble. She said I had to sign a paper agreeing to lease my horse to her solely for the purpose of going on the property with a sheriff and the paper would be null and void once we removed her.”
Johnson wrote that she signed the lease paper on Feb. 14, with the understanding that it was a temporary arrangement.
But Campbell said that the state has provided no solid evidence that Sutherland posed as a federal agent. He said that Sutherland didn’t do anything wrong and was “expressing care” for a horse that was “starving.” Furthermore, he said, a document dated Feb. 15 that the assistant district attorney, William Barry, has included in the state’s discovery production file at the Cumberland County Courthouse shows that Johnson transferred her ownership of Jazz to Sutherland.
The Feb. 15 document, which is allegedly signed by Johnson, Sutherland and two others, reads:
“On this day, Feb. 15, 2014, I, Kari Johnson of Casco, Maine, give to Julie Sutherland of Raymond, Maine, my 9-year-old (Appaloosa) mare known as Jazz, to love and enjoy as I cannot afford to care for this mare, have neglected this mare and physically cannot attend to Jazz anymore,” it reads.
“It says, ‘Signed by Kari Johnson, I’m giving it to Julie Sutherland,’” Campbell said, referring to the document.
But according to Sgt. Andrew Feeney, who investigated the dispute, Johnson, in an interview, “stated it appeared to be her signature, but she did not sign the document.”
In a narrative of the events, Feeney wrote that Sutherland showed him the document when he interviewed her on March 14.
“Sutherland produced the document that showed where Johnson had signed over the horse,” Feeney wrote. “I pointed out the copier type smudge through Johnson’s signature, and that it wasn’t on Sutherland’s. Sutherland stated it was a printer issue, so I asked her to produce the original, which she did. The original also had this copier type smudge through it, and was clearly a fraudulent document. Prior to clearing, I issued Sutherland a summons for impersonating a public servant.”
Campbell said that Sutherland did not forge the document.
“Julie didn’t create these documents to get a horse that was starving to death,” Campbell said. “This horse was only 760 pounds on Feb. 17 and on March 1, after it was rescued, it was 864 pounds. In other words, it gained 100 pounds in two weeks, and it’s still 100 pounds short of what it’s supposed to be.”
In the state’s discovery production file, various municipal and state officials write that Sutherland has claimed to be a government animal welfare official multiple times. Liam Hughes, the director of animal welfare for the Maine Division of Animal and Plant Health, wrote that Sutherland had identified herself as a state humane investigator at an Aug. 19 animal cruelty training in Portland.
“Julie did confirm that she was identifying her[self] as a humane investigator and there was nothing I could do about it because she was going to save the animals that I ignored,” Hughes wrote, in a March 17 email to Casco Animal Control Officer Jessica Jackson.
Hughes also wrote, “Julie called animal welfare claiming to be the ACO for the town of Raymond.”
Campbell said that Sutherland has received a certificate as an “advanced cruelty animal investigator” from the University of Missouri’s National Animal Cruelty Investigation School. He suggested that Johnson and government officials might be confused about who Sutherland is claiming to be.
“We certainly deny that she ever says she was affiliated with the state of Maine government or the federal government,” Campbell said. “But we do not deny that she held, after going to school for weeks, a status of being an advanced animal cruelty investigator.”
“Julie loves animals,” Campbell added. “We admit she loves animals.”
According to Jackson, the animal control officer, the horse is being boarded at an equine rescue facility.
(Keepmecurrent.com - June 20, 2014)
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