Dec. 28—On Nov. 4, The case against a Newfane farm animal sanctuary owner accused of stealing a neighbor’s cows in 2022 was officially declared over.
It was the deadline for Niagara County prosecutors to file an appeal of a Wheatfield Town Court justice’s ruling, that stripped them of key evidence in the case. It upheld the dismissal of criminal theft charges against Tracy Murphy by Town Justice Gary Strenkoski.
“We did not file an appeal, there will be no further action in this case,” Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman said Monday afternoon. “It’s over.”
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It was a long time coming for Murphy who was charged with third-degree grand larceny, a felony, on Aug. 2, 2022, after being indicted by a Niagara County grand jury. That charge was later reduced by prosecutors to a petit larceny count.
The indictment against Murphy was unsealed on Aug. 1, 2022, after New York State Police troopers and criminal investigators executed a search warrant at the farm sanctuary and took custody of Blackie and Hornee, two cattle who reportedly had wandered onto Murphy’s Asha’s Farm Sanctuary on Coomer Road in Newfane from a nearby neighbor’s property.
A key detail discovered days before her trial derailed the prosecution’s entire case — the state police senior investigator who supervised the warrant execution, the seizure of the cattle and the arrest of Murphy was her “neighbor’s brother-in-law.”
It was one of several mistakes in the execution of a search warrant at Murphy’s sanctuary.
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Murphy’s lawyers also told Strenkoski that rather than use state police vehicles to transport the animals to a safe and secure holding place, troopers and investigators “allowed “a group of civilians” to load the cattle onto a private vehicle and trailer and return them directly to her neighbor.
The neighbor, Scott Gregson, told a reporter at the time, “I was advised by the state police that they were going to be executing a search warrant for my cattle. The police requested that I didn’t go onto the property, so I sent someone else to pick them up. They asked me to reach out to someone who was familiar with cattle to assist in removing them from the property.”
Murphy’s defense argued to Strenkoski that the search warrant signed by Niagara County Court Judge Caroline Wojtaszaek called for the seized cattle to be “returned to the court.” Instead, after getting the cattle back from the state police, Murphy’s defense said Gregson “disposed of them.”
Prosecutors had offered Murphy a deal to plead guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct. In return for that plea, Murphy would have received a suspended sentence.
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Murphy reportedly rejected the plea because it required her to admit that she violated New York law by refusing to return the cows. That admission of guilt, Murphy said, would be “dishonest.”
One of Murphy’s defense attorneys, Louis Mussari, said his client is pleased with the DA’s decision not to appeal.
“Tracy, and everyone at Asha’s who take such wonderful care of these animals, can finally move on from this unfortunate experience,” Mussari said.
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