Horse theft affecting state, nation
By David Montgomery
Capital Journal staff
FORT PIERRE — When Marsha Swanberg heard about what had happened to the rodeo horse Dually after the Fourth of July Rodeo in Fort Pierre, she said she got sick to her stomach and cried for an hour. She still follows the case of the injured horse on a daily basis.
But Swanberg, like hundreds of other people paying close attention to the search for people suspected of injuring Dually, isn’t from near Fort Pierre. She’s a resident of Elk River, Minn., and is one example of how a crime committed in Fort Pierre has become a national story.
“I just can’t see somebody taking a horse and abusing it like that horse was abused,” said Swanberg, who looks for news about Dually on the rodeo Web site
www.barrelhorseworld.com.
Helping spread the news is the tight-knit community of rodeo riders and horse owners. Denise Chambliss has been following the story from New Mexico, where she is a member of a professional rodeo association.
“The rodeo industry is one big family, and always has been from back in the ’40s,” Chambliss said. “I couldn’t believe it that anyone would have touched one of those horses.”
Rodeo rider Sharon Means agreed.
“On a couple of rodeo sites and barrel racing sites, it’s a large part of everybody’s daily discussion,” said Means, who grew up in Stanley County and now lives in Eagle Butte. “They’re all concerned. It’s a pretty close-knit group. Everybody wants to see that something is done because they don’t want to see it happen to them.”
Rodeo riders, horse lovers and other people following Dually’s case have approached the incident passionately. Many are furious about rumors Dually was tortured and want to see justice done to the perpetrators — and get angrier with every passing day with no arrests.
“You hear ups and downs,” Swanberg said, talking about comments she has read online. “You hear some people say, ‘Let the law take over.’ You hear people say, ‘Something ought to be done to them.’”
Local officials are well aware of the passion surrounding this case. Many said they’ve received e-mails and phone calls from people looking for information or complaining about the slow pace of the investigation.
“We’ve had lots of calls from outside our area,” said Stanley County Sheriff Brad Rathbun. “Of course we can’t give them information. I’ve been telling them they just need to wait and hear what’s factual and not what’s being blogged around.”
Stanley County State’s Attorney Tom Maher, who is investigating the case to prepare for arrest warrants, said he has also heard from irate callers.
“In the first week there was just a tremendous wave of outcry, contacts by phone and e-mail,” Maher said. “Since then it’s slowed down, but I get a call from Lexington, Kentucky, a call from Hawaii — calls from out of state and many, many people within South Dakota who are very concerned and outraged over what they’re reading.”
Maher said some of the people contacting him are looking for information about possible suspects or about the status of the investigation. Other people, he said, express concerns about the lack of arrests.
“Some people would ask me to give names and identify who the culprit is, to say what I think happened. That would be, in my view, out of line,” Maher said.
“The evidence is what drives the case. As new evidence comes in, that can affect the picture. You’re taught as an attorney to not base your decisions on what is rumored to happen or even what you read in a reliable newspaper or on the radio. You’ve got to act not on hearsay but on evidence.”
Some of the commentary on rodeo Web sites have made personal attacks on Maher and Rathbun and alleged the case is being “pushed under a rug.” Maher said the people who contact him have generally been respectful, but he said anonymous allegations of corruption are nonsense.
“I can’t even reply to that,” Maher said. “I frankly think that’s just nonsense and it’s irresponsible. If somebody is saying that or implying that on an anonymous blog and it’s true, they should report it to the police — either the local police or the Division of Criminal Investigation.”
Fort Pierre Mayor Sam Tidball said has fielded a number of calls as well.
“There’s a lot of interest, not only in our immediate area but around the state and in a number of other states,” Tidball said. “Word spread pretty fast. We’re waiting, of course, to get the final report of what the charges will be in the case.”
Means said she and other people are getting tired of waiting.
“I’d really like to see come up soon,” she said. “It is very important to everybody who travels with their horses. We don’t want to go to bed and worry if they’re going to be there in the morning.”
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Atleast it was a positive note and no "if a crime was committed" or if "the horse was hurt"..........
