Horses in animal abuse case returned to owner

Five of 10 horses at the center of an animal abuse case that led to the demotion of a Pender County deputy have been returned to their owner.

Pender County officials led by then-Sgt. Mike Lewis seized 10 horses from B.J. Suttles' Hampstead residence last month.

Last week, Suttles, his wife Laura Westbrock, and his brother Larry Suttles, each pleaded no contest to a negotiated plea of one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. They each received three years unsupervised probation.

On Tuesday, Suttles picked up five of those horses from Scotts Hill Stables and brought them back to his 40-acre farm near the Pender/Onslow county line.

"They have tons of grass and water out here that they didn't have where they were being kept," Suttles told The Daily News on Wednesday.

He said he would pick up a sixth horse as soon as possible and send the others to a stable at a different location.

Court-appointed veterinarian E. J. Lackey, of Ogden, determined six of the horses were healthy enough to return home Monday. Suttles had to get a permit for his trailer and was not able to get the horses until Tuesday.

Lewis, the Pender County deputy who seized the horses and arrested Suttles in early May, was demoted for ignoring established policies in the process, according to Pender County Sheriff Carson Smith.

Pender County officials released Lewis' personnel records in connection with the case showing that he had ignored policy on two previous occasions involving horses, lied on a search warrant and assigned himself to the area of Suttles' farm.

Lewis told the Daily News last month that he was just trying to protect the horses and he felt animals were are mistreated in Pender County and too many people turn their back on the problem.

He was demoted from sergeant to deputy and received a three-day suspension, Smith said.

Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.