By David Montgomery
Capital Journal staff
Published/Last Modified on Friday, Jul 17, 2009 - 08:59:24 pm CDT
PIERRE — The Stanley County State’s Attorney said Friday he is taking time to make sure he has a case which will stand up in court in the incident of a horse allegedly stolen and abused July 5.
Thomas P. Maher said he has no timeline for arrests in the case, though he acknowledged facing popular pressure to take action quickly.
“People are real worked up,” Maher said. “I don’t have a deadline, nor do I have a timeline. I work on a file and I’m basically gathering information.”
The Stanley County Sheriff’s Department submitted its report on the incident to Maher July 10. Now Maher said he is conducting a further investigation to make sure he can get convictions for anyone who is arrested.
Maher said anger over injuries suffered by the rodeo horse Dually has made the investigation more difficult.
“This affects people’s willingness to cooperate with law enforcement,” Maher said. “They get dodgy and don’t want to get involved.”
Also slowing the investigation is the mobile lifestyle of many people in the rodeo community Maher wants to interview.
“Cowboys, they don’t wait around to stay in contact,” Maher said. “They’re moving from one place to the next, going from one rodeo to the next. There’s some of those people that might have important information.”
While Maher declined to predict whether or not arrests would come out of his investigation, he said his investigation is by-the-book and encouraged people to wait for the process to conclude.
“The thing to do is just wait and see like we do with all these other crimes that are committed,” Maher said. “There’ll be charges or not. That’s what we always do. The process works itself out.”
Maher said he will seek a judge’s signature on arrest warrants only when he is satisfied his case will stand up.
“I wish I could tell you that something will happen,” Maher said. “As soon as I give a date then that becomes some sort of artificial deadline. I watch the file until I’m satisfied. I don’t pull the trigger until I am — and I’m not. There’s stuff that comes in from day to day. I’ll change my decision when I see that I’m satisfied.”
To me....that sounds like someone who is shoving it back on rodeo people because they can't get their job done...... JMO
