A Palmer couple who returned to Alaska last December with a trailer carrying dead and seriously ill horses has been charged with animal cruelty .

Steve Hampton, 45, and Diane Hampton, 32, each face nine misdemeanor counts of cruelty. The charges were filed in Palmer District Court.

The couple had been hired by eight different people to pick up horses in the Lower 48 and bring them to Alaska, according to charging documents.

When the couple arrived in Palmer in early December, five of the horses were dead. One horse died shortly afterward and a seventh, which was suffering from severe frostbite, was later killed. Two other horses survived.

According to charging documents, the bodies of some of the dead horses showed signs of pain and struggle. They had been hauled in an unheated trailer in temperatures as cold as 60 below zero, the documents said.

Assistant district attorney Bill Estelle noted in the documents that the couple were detained at the Canadian border because they had trouble with documentation and health records for the horses. The couple also had trouble with their truck's transmission, he said.

Some of the horse owners have said the horses arrived about a month late.

The couple is well-known among horse owners and rodeo riders. Diane Hampton is president of the Northern Lights Cowboys Association.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.   The couple also is facing a civil suit filed earlier this year in Anchorage by owners of five of the dead horses.

In the suit, owners Cathleen Croghan, Teresa Michels, Karen Schmidtmann, Jerry and Susan Fine, and Cherie Rich are demanding $380,000, plus an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

Update 5/13/97:  Arrest warrants for Diane and Steve Hampton were issued after the couple failed to show up for a change of plea hearing in district court in Palmer.  The Hamptons, who now live in Wymoning, were scheduled to plead to one count of animal cruetly at a hearing in April.  When they failed to appear or call, the hearing was rescheduled to this week.  The couple told Judge Peter Ashman by phone that they could not afford to fly to Alaska.

Judge Ashman then issued the bench warrants.  Prosecutor William Estelle said it was unlikely the couple would be extradited for the case. The couple is also facing a civil suit filed by owners of several of the horses.

Update 9/20/97:  The Hamptons were sentenced to four months in jail and ordered not to transport or board horses for the next five years.

Diane and Steve Hampton were originally charged with nine counts of animal cruelty in District Court in Palmer after six of the horses they transported in 1995 died and one had to be put down from severe frostbite. Two others were injured. Prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge to one count each of animal cruelty in exchange for the couple's pleading no contest.

Reference:

Anchorage Daily News