MARTINSBURG – A New Jersey couple who owns a Mineral County farm is seeking more than $70,000 combined in two federal lawsuits after they say false reports of animal cruelty were made against them.
Ramon N. and Gemma V. Pescevich filed two federal complaints on April 6.
The first of the complaints is against Mineral County Dog Warden James B. Hawk and county employee Melissa Kidwell.
Due to a settlement, the Pescevichs were supposed to pay Hawk and Kidwell $2,239.16 for time they spent obtaining statements, working with cattle and preparing for court.
The Pescevichs say Hawk and Kidwell are guilty of falsifying financial reports, of misreporting hours of animal cruelty and of false public alarm.
"Mineral County Humane Officers complaint against us is baseless and they know full well that there is no factual basis for them," the Pescevichs wrote in a letter they attached to their complaint.
Because of Hawk's and Kidwell's behavior, the Pescevichs incurred "substantial" legal fees, experienced financial strain on their farm and affected their health and productivity at work, according to the complaint.
"We strongly believe that we had lost $40,000 in the year 2007 and 2008 expenditures related to this suit," the complaint says.
In the second lawsuit, the Pescevichs say they are owed $30,000 after Kristie E. Whipp, David Redfarm, Linda Barr and Randy L. Crawford, all of Spade Land and Livestock, violated their constitutional and civil liberty rights after filing false police reports, among other things.
The defendants in the second complaint allegedly stole a No. 75 steer from the Pescevichs, damaged their pastureland, broke a latch in their trailer to steal 50 pounds of organic kelp and stole five locks, leaving animals unsecured, according to the complaint.
The Pescevichs say the defendants are also guilty of endangering their animals by giving them moldy hay and by leaving round bales of hay with large plastic ties still attached to it.
"These individuals' aggressive behaviors, their being 'local experts' in commercial and conventional farming practice interfered and ruined with our methods to organic farming," the Pescevichs wrote in their complaint.
In a Mineral Daily News letter to the editor, Barr accused the Pescevichs of failing to feed and to provide water to their 11 cattle.
"Animal Control was called last week and authorized a neighboring individual to deliver hay and to break the ice on a pond so the calves could drink," Barr wrote in her letter.
The owner who sold the Pescevichs the cattle said they had lost 100 pounds since the Pescevichs bought them, Barr said in her letter.
"If the Animal Control Officer hadn't authorized kind-hearted souls to feed them, the calves would probably be dead or near dead by now," Barr wrote.
In her letter, Barr says a complaint was supposed to be filed against the Pescevichs, but the couple intimidated officials, threatening to sue them if they filed any complaint.
"I fear that our elected officials, the Sheriff and Prosecuting Attorney, have been intimidated into doing nothing," Barr wrote. "These were beautiful, healthy calves when they were purchased, and it is sad to see them starving to death because of legal timidity."
In a rebuttal, the Pescevichs wrote to the paper saying their cattle are healthy. They say the animals were not drinking from the alleged frozen pond, but from another body of water also on their land.
In addition, the Pescevichs say the people who sold them their cattle were not a reliable source to obtain information about the health of the cattle.
"The individuals/local cattle business people who sold us the cattle have a reputation and we have been told are always in trouble with the law and in and out of courts," the Pescevichs wrote. "Couldn't you have picked a more reliable source for your information?"
Hay fed to the cattle by people other than the Pescevichs was moldy, the couple claims.
The defendants are guilty of falsifying a handwritten receipt, of falsely alarming the public and of fabricating a story in the local newspaper, the suit states.
The Pescevichs, who are from Mountain Lakes, N.J., are appearing pro se.
U.S. District Court case numbers: 3:09-CV-29, 3:09-CV-25
N.J. couple say animal cruelty reports were false
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