Maureen Hayden
CNHI
INDIANAPOLIS —
Two women accused of running a puppy mill on their family dairy farm pleaded guilty to reduced charges Tuesday, escaping both jail time and a criminal fine.
Virginia Garwood, 65, and her daughter, Kristen Garwood, 27, pleaded guilty to charges of failing to pay sales tax on puppies they sold from their Breezy Valley Dairy Farm in Harrison County. Virginia Garwood also pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to pay income tax on proceeds from the sale.
A plea agreement that called for the women to serve community service and make cash donations to an animal shelter or humane society was rejected by the judge, who noted the elder Garwood’s age and lack of criminal record.
Marion Superior Court Judge Annie Christ-Garcia made the decision after the Garwoods’ attorneys, including high-profile criminal defense lawyer Jennifer Lukemeyer, argued that the women were “simple country farming folks” who were ignorant of the law.
That description stood in stark contrast to the one made by the Indiana Attorney General’s office last summer when it, along with the Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of Revenue, raided the Garwoods’ farm, seizing 244 puppies.
At the time, prosecutors said the women failed to pay at least $125,000 in sales taxes as part of the puppy mill business they operated on their family dairy farm. They also alleged that many of the puppies were ill or neglected.
In court Tuesday, Lukemeyer said the women got into the business of breeding and selling puppies to save their family dairy farm. “This wasn’t about making a quick buck in some sinister ‘101 Dalmatians’ scheme,” Lukemeyer said.
The case against the Garlands was brought by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller after his office received complaints that the Garlands were selling puppies for $250 to $300 in cash that were ill or neglected.
Kristen Garwood received 6 months probation after pleading guilty to a class-A misdemeanor charge of failing to pay sales tax. Virginia Garwood received 18 months on probation after pleading to two class-D felony charges of failing to pay sales and income taxes.
All other criminal charges were dropped. The Garwoods still face a civil tax case in which the Attorney General’s Office alleges they owe $132,440 in unpaid taxes based on several years of dog-sale transactions. Their admissions of guilt in the criminal case can be used in the civil tax case.
The Garwoods are also involved in an ongoing consumer-protection lawsuit filed by the Attorney General’s Office under the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. Four consumers complained they purchased dogs the Garwoods misrepresented as being healthy, only to discover later the animals were diseased.
“These two admitted publicly in court what the State alleged all along: that for several years they sold dogs and puppies to consumers but did not collect Indiana sales tax,” Zoeller said in a news release. “There have been allegations of consumer fraud, but it was the illegal failure to collect and remit sales tax that caught up to them.”
While Christ-Garcia ordered the women not to return to the dog-breeding business while they were under probation, she did rule that they each could own a dog as a pet, but said the dogs had to be fixed or neutered.
The women were arrested last June in a raid that received widespread attention as Indiana was cracking down on breeders who were raising and selling puppies in large numbers and under questionable conditions.
A new state law passed last year requires breeders to provide their dogs with exercise and sets requirements for the size and type of cages where they are kept. Commercial breeders must also provide consumers with their dogs’ medical records at the time of sale or adoption, and they are subject to inspection.
However, the state was able to arrest the Garwoods under Indiana tax laws. “This case was important in that it was one of the first attempts at trying the tax evasion angle,” said Theresa Stilger, animal care coordinator for the New Albany-Floyd County Animal Shelter. “I would say it was cutting-edge, and they may try it again because at least the dogs were able to be saved from those living conditions.”
Following the raid, volunteers from the Humane Society of the United States’ Emergency Services department and the Humane Society of Missouri transported the dogs to a makeshift shelter at a New Albany warehouse, where they were quarantined and examined by veterinarians who found some to be infected with giardia, a highly-contagious gastrointestinal disease.
The majority were healthy enough to be sent out for adoption to shelters around the region. Officials from the local shelter were heavily involved in the new law, but Stilger worries there may still be weaknesses in the law and that the Garwoods could return to breeding.
“I was hoping for a little bit of a stronger sentence, but hopefully this will make them feel a little uncomfortable about returning to breeding,” Stilger said.
During the course of the investigation, one of the attorney general’s investigators became sick with the disease from handling some of the ill dogs. Humane Society volunteers who took part in the raid described the conditions on the farm as filthy.
Lukemeyer and fellow defense attorney Aaron Freeman both portrayed the Garlands as women desperate to save their family farm. They said the Garlands got into breeding and raising puppies in 2007, when they were struggling to keep their dairy farm in business at a time when milk prices were dropping and grain prices were rising. “They were trying to keep the family farm alive,” Lukemeyer said.
She described her client, Kristen Garland, as an animal lover who had volunteered her time with the local 4-H program, showing young people how to raise and care for goats. Freeman, who represented Virginia Garland, said his client had spent 35 years working on the family dairy farm.
“There is nothing you can do to her that would be worse than the public humiliation she’s suffered,” Freeman told the judge. Freeman also told the judge that his client would be in no hurry to return to the dog-breeding business once their probation was complete. “The chance she’ll recommit the crime is zero,” Freeman said. “Judge, they learned their lesson. They got the message.”
The Indiana Attorney General’s office had wanted the message delivered differently, though. In a plea agreement filed last week, Deputy Attorney General Ian McLean asked for Kristen Garland to be charged with a class-D felony, and to be required to serve 20 hours of community service and make a $500 payment to the Harrison County Animal Shelter or the American Humane Society, both of which had assisted the Attorney General’s office in caring for the 240 puppies that were seized during the raid.
Christ-Garcia reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and denied the request for the payment and community service. Christ-Garcia also denied the prosecutor’s request that Virginia Garwood be required to serve 20 hours of community service and make a $1,000 payment to the county animal shelter or humane society.
The judge seemed less than excited to hear the case. McLean had requested to present two witnesses, but Christ-Garcia only allowed one and told him he had five minutes. She stopped the investigator five minutes into his testimony.
“I am inundated day in and day out with cases involving criminals with significant histories,” Christ-Garcia said.
Stilger said there are many more “puppy mills” in southern Indiana, and she hopes this case will send a message. She advises that anytime someone offers to sell a dog but wants to meet the buyer in a public place, that is a warning sign.
Staff writer Matt Thacker of The (New Albany) Tribune, contributed to this report.
