ELLSWORTH – Civil charges that had been filed against a Bar Harbor woman over the death last year of a horse in her care have been dropped because of a lack of evidence, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Joan Sullivan, owner and operator of Eochaidh (pronounced YAW-KEE) Stables on Crooked Road, faced civil charges in Ellsworth District Court of cruelty to animals and failure to provide sustenance to animals. The charges stemmed from a state investigation of her farm, where she boarded horses and offered riding lessons and trail rides, after the death of a 4-year-old Belgian mare at her farm in March 2007.

At the time, Sullivan said she believed the horse may have been poisoned. But according to state officials, a subsequent necropsy revealed the animal died from colic, a frequently fatal condition in which a horse’s intestines become tangled.

About a month after the horse died, agents with Maine Animal Welfare Program removed 18 horses from the farm because of concerns they had about the care of the animals. Also taken away were sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits and a pig, police indicated at the time.

According to Bill Entwisle, assistant district attorney for Hancock County, the charges filed against Sullivan related only to the death of the horse, not to the varying conditions of the other animals. To get a conviction on the civil charges, the state would have had to prove that Sullivan did not provide adequate medical treatment to the horse after it became ill, he said Thursday.

“We dismissed it because, in my view, the evidence wasn’t there to meet our burden [of proof],” Entwisle said. “It’s a hard thing to prove.”

Anthony Beardsley, Sullivan’s attorney, said Thursday that the state made the right decision to dismiss the charges.

“It’s great news,” Beardsley said. “I always felt their case was very weak. My client didn’t do anything wrong.”

Attempts Thursday afternoon to contact Sullivan were unsuccessful.

Before the horse had died, the state had been looking into Sullivan’s care of the animals because of complaints filed by an owner of a horse that had been boarded at the stable.

Last summer, Sullivan went to Ellsworth District Court to win back custody of the seized horses and testified that she had been having financial difficulties that winter but always made sure the horses and other animals were cared for properly. After hearing testimony from Sullivan, state officials and others, Judge Bernard Staples ruled in September that most of the horses should be returned to Sullivan immediately.

Three of the 18 seized horses were not owned by Sullivan and had been returned to their owners while another died in state custody. As part of his decision, Staples indicated that five of the remaining 14 horses should be kept in state custody until they were deemed healthy enough to be returned to Sullivan.

According to Beardsley, three of those horses are still being held in state custody, which is the last remaining detail from the case that needs to be resolved. Beardsley and Entwisle each said that an unanswered question is how much each party will have to pay to cover the state’s costs of caring for the horses still being held by the state.

Since the case arose, Sullivan has decided to sell her 34-acre property. It is listed for sale by a local real estate agency for $629,000.

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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