Source: By Jan Falstad of the Billings Gazette ““Leachman cannot now change his position on appeal and argue that the state produced insufficient evidence…” Yellowstone County District Judge Susan Watters has upheld James Leachman’s jury conviction on five counts of abusing his horses. Leachman, a longtime Billings horse […]
Source: By Brett French of the Billings Gazette “Good Info from Dr. Kirkpatrick, Skewed view given by reporter!” “The management of wild horse herds and flourishing urban deer populations is so politically charged that science often gets pushed aside, said Jay Kirkpatrick, of the Billings-based Science and Conservation […]
As published in the Billings Gazette At least four of Leachman’s horses died in “horrible agony,” the judge said Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace Larry Herman sentenced Billings livestock breeder James Leachman on Wednesday to serve five years in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility, with all but […]
Jim Leachman of Billings presented a check Wednesday at the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Crow Agency to buy back 60 to 70 of the 829 horses he is accused of starving.
The sale of 829 horses on a Crow Reservation ranch that was touch-and-go for weeks ran smoothly on Saturday. The sale, believed to be the first of horses impounded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for trespassing on tribal lands, attracted 1,000 people, including 200 to 300 buyers to the ranch 16 miles east of Billings.
Planning started in earnest Tuesday to set up for this weekend’s sale of as many as 829 horses on a ranch east of Billings.
The sale of the horses formerly belonging to James Leachman of Billings is an ambitious undertaking.
One of Montana’s largest horse sales from a single ranch in modern times is expected to begin this weekend.
“Unless there is a court action, I feel pretty confident the sale will start at 10 a.m. on April 2 and run the 3rd and probably the 4th,” said Allan Hanley, a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs rangeland management specialist.
Two more misdemeanor counts of animal abuse have been filed against a Billings man who authorities say left some 700 horses without food at a ranch east of Billings, while on another front plans to round up the horses and sell them are moving forward.
James H. Leachman of Billings pleaded not guilty to 10 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty Friday in Justice Court and said he will ask for a jury trial.
Billings Flying Service airlifted about 20 tons of hay, one round bale at a time, Thursday morning to hundreds of hungry horses on a ranch east of Billings along Highway 87E.
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