Trio pleads to cruelty charges a year after 41 animals removed from Saginaw County farm

SAGINAW, MI — Three people facing animal cruelty charges after authorities seized more than 40 horses, cattle, dogs, cats, pigs, goats, sheep, birds, and shelled reptiles from a Saginaw County farm have accepted plea deals.

And though the felonies they originally faced will be dismissed, they may owe five figures in restitution for the county housing and medically treating their animals for just shy of a year.

A preliminary examination for codefendants Lynn M. Leiner, Daniel R. Rogers II, and Kimberlynn Delong was scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, May 4. Rather than proceed with testimony, all three defendants entered pleas.

Leiner and Rogers both pleaded no contest to cruelty to two or three animals, while Delong pleaded no contest to abandonment of or cruelty to one animal. Both charges are misdemeanors, the former punishable by up to one year in jail and the other punishable by up to 90 days.

In exchange, the prosecution agreed to dismiss charges of abandonment of or cruelty to 25 or more animals, a seven-year felony, that Leiner and Rogers faced. They agreed to dismiss a two-year felony of cruelty to four to 10 animals that Delong had faced.

By pleading no contest rather than guilty, the defendants did not admit to having committed a crime. Presiding Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank relied on documents to enter convictions on the record.

Saginaw County Animal Care and Control Center Director Bonnie Kanicki previously told MLive the case against the trio began April 5, 2021, when Michigan State Police troopers responded to a call of three horses running loose from their paddock on Leiner and Rogers’ farm on Sheridan Road in Spaulding Township. The horses had gone onto neighboring yards and damaged property.

The troopers managed to get the horses secured back on their owners’ property. The troopers noticed the paddock’s fences were broken and the horses had insufficient water, Kanicki has said.

Leiner and Rogers were not home at the time, Kanicki has said.

Animal Control officers followed up at the farm in subsequent days and also noticed the horses had insufficient water. On May 10, a Saginaw County Sheriff’s deputy went to the farm after a person found a deceased dairy calf near the back of the property.

On May 21, Animal Control officers and deputies executed a search warrant on the property, finding numerous animals in obvious need of veterinary care.

“They were so skinny,” Kanicki has said. “There were calves with visible ribs, their spines protruding, their hips protruding. One horse had a large mass on its neck. Another one had something wrong with its eye.”

A 100-gallon stock tank in the animals’ pen had insufficient water, she added.

Leiner and Rogers were home this time. Delong owned a miniature horse and a horse with a mass on its neck and boarded them on the property, Kanicki has said.

Kanicki said the trio was uncooperative.

“They had no excuse for these skinny animals,” she has said. “The body conditions of the animals were showing they were negligent in providing them proper food and water.”

The next day, May 21, authorities seized 41 animals from the property — five horses, including a miniature, two calves, nine goats, three sheep, one pig, five dogs, two adult cats, six kittens, one tortoise, three paint turtles, two ducks, and two chickens. The animals were taken to five rescue organizations throughout Michigan and one in Indiana.

The owners subsequently surrendered the animals the county, with Delong doing so at her Wednesday plea hearing.

As of May 5, the county still owns three dogs, one cat, the tortoise, the two horses, and the two calves, which have now grown into bulls. Some of the animals are with foster homes or with rescue groups. Kanicki added her agency is working with the rescues to find permanent homes for the animals.

Kanicki said she plans to seek restitution from the defendants at sentencing, to compensate the county for the costs of impounding, boarding, and providing veterinary care to the animals. She will be seeking $21,813.75 from Delong and $36,063 from Rogers and Leiner, she said.

The trio’s sentencing date is pending.

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