Update on Trexler case
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Family members of a suspended South Carolina agriculture department official accused of abusing horses will be sent to Georgia to face animal cruelty charges there, authorities said Wednesday.
The brother and mother of Assistant Agriculture Commissioner James Trexler will be taken to Georgia on Thursday, Jefferson County, Ga., sheriff’s Deputy Jimmy Kitchens said.
Terry Trexler and his mother, Hazelene Trexler, each face 30 charges of animal cruelty and 25 counts of moving horses that had been quarantined in Georgia, Kitchens said. James Trexler is charged in a separate case in South Carolina.
Last week, 23 malnourished horses were discovered on South Carolina properties leased by Hazelene and Terry Trexler. Five more were found on James Trexler’s property.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Monday that authorities had seized an additional 17 horses linked to the Trexlers from a property there.
In October, Georgia investigators found about 70 Arabian horses, including a dead one, on parched land about 40 miles from Augusta, Ga., Kitchens said. Authorities quarantined all the horses until Terry and Hazelene Trexler could show none had tested positive for equine infectious anemia, a potentially fatal virus.
But the Trexlers and their horses disappeared. Twenty-five of the malnourished horses discovered on South Carolina land leased or owned by the Trexlers have been identified by photographs as animals that had been held in Georgia, Kitchens said.
The Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which has been caring for the animals since they were discovered in South Carolina, said none of the original 23 horses seized has tested positive for the disease.
Hazelene Trexler is charged in South Carolina with 28 counts of ill treatment to animals; Terry Trexler faces 23 similar counts, and James Trexler is charged with five counts.
Terry and Hazelene Trexler remained in jail Wednesday. James Trexler has been released on bond.
Prosecutors have said South Carolina Rep. Todd Rutherford informed them he had been contacted to represent James Trexler, but the Democrat refused to confirm Tuesday whether he represented any of the family members. There was no answer Wednesday at a number listed for James Trexler.
James Trexler faces no charges in Georgia. He has been suspended from his Department of Agriculture job without pay.
Source: The Associated Press