The Fredericksburg, VA Free Lance-Star, Friday, February 06, 2004

Closing the cow caper:  Culpeper Cow Caper ends with two men pleading guilty and paying $25 fines.

By DONNIE JOHNSTON

The Great Culpeper Cow Caper concluded yesterday when a judge fined each of the two men involved $25 each. Josh Colvin, 30, and his cousin Wyatt Colvin, 21, pleaded guilty to improperly disposing of a dead animal carcass. The Black Angus cow was left in a Culpeper County Administration Building parking lot on the night of Jan. 17.

"Do you feel your client can get a fair trial after all the pretrial publicity?" District Judge Roger Morton asked defense attorney Andy Gayheart as the Colvins approached the bench.

"I think so," a smiling Gayheart replied.  The $25 fine was the result of a plea bargain between the cousins and the commonwealth's attorney's office. The deal was negotiated in part by Sheriff Lee Hart to get the two young farmers to admit to the dumping.

Although investigators had a pretty good idea who the culprits were, they had no evidence. The cow, which was sent to a fertilizer plant the morning it was discovered, could not be identified and there were no witnesses to the drop-off. The combined fine amount of $50 is exactly what the county had to pay Valley Protein to haul the carcass away.

The Colvins say they dumped the cow in the parking lot following a dispute with the county's Animal Control Office. They say someone from that office called and threatened legal action if they didn't remove a dead cow from the Thornton River, which flows along the border of their northern Culpeper County farm. After removing the cow and then finding that it was not from their herd, the Colvins sent the county a $700 bill for their services.

A reply stated that the county would pay only $75, so the Colvins decided to give the county the cow. Deputy Clerk Peggy Crane found the dead animal in the parking lot when she went to work on the morning of Jan. 19. The Colvins say they still have not been able to reach Animal Control on the matter and that phone calls have not been returned.

At Tuesday night's Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Sue Hansohn called for a board inquiry into Animal Control's handling of the matter. The Colvins spoke during a public hearing at that meeting, asking why Animal Control had treated the family in such a manner.

Meanwhile, the Cow Caper has drawn national media attention and the Colvins have been on radio talk shows as far away as Seattle. With court costs, each of the Colvin cousins paid $89.

Was it worth it? "Yes!" Josh Colvin said emphatically. Do the cousins think they were treated fairly?  "By the court and the Sheriff's Department, yes," Josh added. "But not by Animal Control."

Wyatt Colvin was impressed with the way Judge Morton handled the matter. "He had a smile on his face the whole time," Wyatt said.