Man charged with animal cruelty appears in Sanders County court

Matt Unrau

Valley Press

Andrew L. Scott, 80, had his preliminary hearing Tuesday morning at the Thompson Falls courthouse.

The Camas Prairie native is charged with one felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals and eight misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.

After pleading not guilty to the charges, Scott’s attorney successfully lobbied for the release of Scott on his own recognizance. Bond was previously set at $25,000.

County Attorney Coleen Magera argued against the release due to his liability of Scott being a flight risk, but Judge Kim Christopher found in favor of Scott listening to evidence that stated Scott was living in a remote mountainous location in Idaho and not in Hawaii as previously believed.

Due to the remote location Scott’s attorney Britt Cotter argued that he was unaware of the warrant for his arrest, and had turned himself in last week when he entered the social security office in Missoula where he was taken into custody by Missoula police.

The initial warrant for his arrest was issued on November 24, 2008 and was arrested Monday of last week around 2:30 p.m.

He was transported to Sanders County on Thursday.

Polly Benezet, Scott’s first ex-wife provided a character witness for the defense.

Benezet, who lives in Missoula with her and Scott’s child plans to have Scott live with her in the next few months and stated she is willing to supervise his release and insure he makes all the court appearances and will notify police if he is in violation of the parole.

Scott is restricted to Missoula and Sanders County. An omnibus hearing is scheduled for August 4 at 10 a.m.

The seventeen horses suffering from Scott’s alleged neglect were found in Camas Prairie on July 18 of last year by Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Hedley.

The horses had gone 10-15 days without any water. Out of these 17 horses two were dead upon Hedley’s arrival and another two died later.

Since then the remaining 13 horses have been cured of strangles, a form of strep throat for horses, and have all been adopted by new owners and Hedley reports that they are all “receiving a lot of love and attention.”

“Something good has come out of a bad situation,” says Hedley. He credits this to the support of the surrounding community and county leadership.