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Jeanne Ryan of Goshen was sentenced Thursday after being found guilty in July to 10 felony counts of animal cruelty and 10 counts of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals by a jury, said the Orange County District Attorney's Office,
Ryan, a retired New York City police officer, was sentenced to multiple concurrent sentences of two years, the DA's Office said.
The maximum sentence which the law allows for the felony of aggravated cruelty to animals is two years in jail, they said. She is also not allowed to own animals for 15 years following her sentence.
Ryan was arrested on July 29, 2017, when investigators from the Hudson Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with the assistance of the Town of Goshen Police Department, executed a search warrant at the barn located at Ryan’s residence in the Town of Goshen.
Inside the barn, they discovered the severely decomposed remains of five horses, as well as a severely emaciated, though live, horse.
When Ryan appeared in Town Court, the District Attorney’s Office announced that it would be presenting the case to a grand jury to consider additional charges. Following a grand jury investigation, the grand jury issued a 20-count indictment, alleging that between March 1, 2016, and July 29, 2017, Ryan subjected 10 horses to “aggravated cruelty.”
“In my opinion, the current law does not provide for adequate punishment for instances of Aggravated Cruelty to Animals as were proven in this case,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “The judge’s decision to sentence this defendant to the maximum sentences that the law allows was just and proper in light of this defendant’s conduct in systematically starving 10 horses, nine of which died."
Hoovler said that if not for the intervention of the Town of Goshen Police Department and the HVSPCA, the tenth horse would also have certainly starved to death.
He also recommended that one of the equine rescue societies that took possession of the surviving horse to receive restitution for expenses incurred for their care of the starving horse. A restitution hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2.
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