Trader charged with violating horse quarantine

LAPEER, Mich. (AP)--A Lapeer County horse trader was charged with illegally importing a horse into Michigan and violating a quarantine order.

Chisholm Alexander, 31, of Imlay Township already was in jail for theft when he was arraigned July 3 on the new charges.

Authorities said Alexander and a second man, Chad Mills, 34, of Ashley, illegally transported a horse across state lines without a health certificate. Alexander also was charged with taking a horse away from his farm while a quarantine order was in effect.

Alexander was sentenced in May to 90 days in jail and ordered to repay $27,000 to clients from whom he had accepted money to buy or sell horses. His attorney, Thomas J. Tomko of Sterling Heights, told The Flint Journal that the new charges are unrelated to the previous case.

Asked about the charge involving transporting a horse without a health certificate, Tomko said he understood it was not unusual for health paperwork to follow and not travel with a horse.

As for the second charge, Tomko said he believed the horse's owner had insisted on picking up the horse from Alexander's farm and that all the horses had tested negative for Equine Infectious Anemia before it left.

Transporting a horse across state lines without a health certificate is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Mills could not be reached for comment, The Journal said in a story published July 4.

Date: 7/16/07