Murphy gets 364 days for violating animal ban

FARMINGTON – A New Sharon woman convicted of a contempt of court charge on Nov. 16 was sentenced to 364 days in jail today, the maximum allowed by law. Execution of the sentence was stayed, pending her appeal.

Following a daylong trial in Franklin County Superior Court two weeks ago, Carol Murphy, 72, was convicted of contempt by a jury after 30 minutes of deliberation. The contempt charge stems from her violation of two, lifetime bans on possessing animals that were handed down to Murphy by Superior Court justices in 2004 and 2010, following her convictions for animal cruelty. The equivalent of a Class D misdemeanor conviction, the plenary contempt charge carries a maximum sentence of 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

In 2014, neighbors alerted the district attorney’s office that Murphy was keeping animals at her home at 248 Lane Road. After securing a search warrant, the state’s Animal Welfare Department and law enforcement seized four dogs, five chinchillas, two rabbits, a pot-bellied pig and two cats from Murphy’s residence, according to testimony at the Nov. 16 trial. As the contempt charge was advancing through the court system, subsequent searches located cats and other animals during one visit and a dog that Murphy claimed was a service animal.

On Tuesday, Justice William Stokes delayed sentencing Murphy until this morning. The delay came after Murphy asked Stokes to read through transcripts of her past court cases. Specifically, Murphy claimed there was no warrant served when law enforcement and animal welfare representatives entered her home and seized animals in 2004.

Today, Stokes cited each transcript and law court decision he had reviewed, stacking the bound copies on the bench in front of him. Assistant District Attorney Joshua Robbins requested six months in jail, a sentence the state believed was proportionate to the actions Murphy had taken in ignoring previous court orders.

“This has consumed a great deal of the state’s resources and a great deal of the state and court’s time,” Robbins said.

Murphy’s sentencing argument was that the original seizure of her animals in 2004 had been unlawful, as no search warrant had been initially applied for. State officials had killed a $10,000 horse, she said, cutting off its head and leaving the body behind. Those actions voided the state’s case, she said, and therefore there was no court order to be held in contempt for.

Murphy also claimed that Robbins had never taken an oath of office and therefore couldn’t prosecute the case, that she was a “state citizen of the Republic of Maine” and that she couldn’t be tried by a military court. The state receives judicial permission to put Murphy’s seized animals up for adoption; those animals were evidence, Murphy said, and should have been retained.

“That obviously can’t be done,” she said. “We’re not in Nazi Germany.”

Stokes said that he believed Murphy’s view of her legal history was incorrect. State officials had acted lawfully in 2004, he said, responding to complaints from neighbors and failed attempts by the animal control officer to make contact with Murphy. A report about a recumbent horse, unable to stand under its own power and in respiratory distress, resulted in a consultation with a state vet who eventually authorized its euthanization. According to the transcripts, the head was removed for an autopsy because a dead skunk had been found nearby and some of the horse’s conditions were consistent with rabies.

The conditions the animals were living in back in 2004, Stokes said, citing the judge, were “horrid, shameful, disgusting and despicable.”

“Ms. Murphy has chosen to take a view of the facts that has no basis in reality,” Stokes said. “It is not that she is passionate in what she feels, it is that she is obstinate in what she feels.”

She had created a narrative in which she was the victim, Stokes said. “Trust me, Ms. Murphy, I do not see you as a victim.”

Saying he was was unable to recall another case involving a defendant so contemptuous of the legal process, Stokes disagreed with Robbins that six months was a sentence proportionate to her conduct. He sentenced Murphy to 364 days in jail.

Stokes did stay execution of the jail sentence to await the dispensation of Murphy’s appeal to the state law court. The same conditions for bail will remain in effect, as well as an additional provision that law enforcement can conduct random searches for animals. Murphy reviewed the bail bond and signed it.