Already rescheduled several times, the Centerbury Farm equine neglect and cruelty case has been postponed yet again.
Lawyers gathered on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at the Queen Anne’s County District Court for the trial of Marsha Parkinson, the owner of Canterbury Farm. Parkinson faces 133 criminal charges for failing to provide adequate care for her breeding herd of Polish Arabian horses, which were impounded last spring.
According to the Star-Democract, Parkinson’s attorney, Jonathan P. Kagan of Baldwin, Kagan & Gormley LLC of Annapolis, claimed to need more time to prepare Parkinson’s defense and asked for a postponement. In order to grant the postponement, Parkinson needed to waive her right to a speedy trial. Upon waiving that right, Judge John F. Nunn III (no relation to well-known Maryland resident, owner of the retail and catalog store Bit of Britain Tack retail store and the manufacturing/importing company Nunn Finer Products John Nunn) set new trial dates for Feb. 27 – March 2, 2012.
In an interesting twist, according to the Star-Democrat:
“Rebecca Branzell, attorney for the Humane Society of the United States, sought a protective order relieving HSUS of providing items Kagan requested, saying the requests were overly broad and, in some cases, irrelevant.
Kagan said HSUS [which assisted Queen Anne’s County Department of Animal Services in relocating the horses] was pivotal in the case and he wanted to show their interest, purpose and bias.
Nunn said, “I don’t care about the motivation of the Humane Society; I want to know if the horses were neglected.”
Kagan said the case isn’t just about the condition of the horses; he wanted to know how much money HSUS had collected as a result of the seizure.
[Queen Anne’s States Attorney Lance] Richardson asked how the issue of fundraising was relevant to the issue of neglect, [as the] HSUS didn’t make the decision to seize all the horses; that recommendation came from local veterinarian Dr. Terry Corkran.
Nunn denied the protective order except for fundraising documents and electronic records. HSUS has until Jan. 13 to provide the records requested.”
