BUFFALO, N.Y. - A more than five year legal saga could come to an end Tuesday when a judge holds a hearing on the fate of Beth Hoskins' horses.
Hoskins is the Town of Aurora woman who was found guilty of 52 counts of animal cruelty involving the care of her horses, and has been the subject of an on going civil suit by the SPCA.
Under a court order from last week, 29 of Hoskins' horses were supposed to be sold to one of Hoskins' friends in Rochester.
The horses had been temporarily housed at a farm in Niagara County.
But when a hauler came for them over the weekend, Hoskins instead had the horses returned to her farm in Aurora.
On Monday, following Hoskins' apparent defiance of his order, State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Glownia ordered Hoskins' attorney and an attorney for the SPCA back to his courtroom Tuesday morning.
Marie Bennett has been caring for the 29 horses for the last four months at her farm in Niagara County and says Hoskins owes her about seven thousand dollars.
Under a previous court order, Bennett was only supposed to have the horses for two weeks, that's one of the many, many delays in the civil case against Hoskins that was filed by the SPCA.
"The best outcome would be that somebody is appointed to care for the horses, they're sold individually to homes where they'll be cared for," says Bennett.
And if Bennett is frustrated by what's happened over the last four months, you can only imagine how Barbara Carr of the SPCA feels.
More than five years ago, the SPCA raided Hoskins' farm and she was found guilty of animal cruelty.
Fined and sentenced to probation in the criminal case, Hoskins was found to have violated her probation and wound up being sentenced to 90 days in jail.
The civil case against Hoskins has now been going on for two and a half years.
Scott Brown: "How would describe Judge Glownia's handling of this?"
Barbara Carr: "I don't think he's handled it well. There's been numerous court orders- I have piles of them on my desk- and we could go through them and say that never happened, that never happened, that never happened. And there was no consequence, no consequence, no consequence, no consequence."
Scott Brown: "Do you feel Hoskins is a hoarder?"
Barbara Carr: "I'm not going to answer that question, I'm not a psychiatrist. People can draw their own conclusions of her behavior."
Carr estimates that over the last five plus years, the care of Hoskins' horses, as well as legal fees in the legal cases has cost the SPCA hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hoskins did not return a message left for her by 2 On Your Side, and her attorney did not return two calls for comment.
