Virginia Winter says snow prevented her from removing horses

Molalla resident Virginia Winter, who was ordered Jan. 3 by the Clackamas County Circuit Court to have all horses removed from her property, told a judge today that the snow prevented her from doing so.

At the January hearing, Judge Jeffrey S. Jones gave Winter two weeks to remove the animals from her property. Winter was banned from possessing any horses of her own after she was convicted on multiple animal neglect charges in 2006, but she told the judge that the horses currently on her property are not in her possession, as they belong to another family who is leasing the land.

At the Jan. 3 hearing, Jones did not find her to be in violation, but he did alter the terms of her probation to forbid her not only from possessing horses but from having any contact with them.

Although she did not remove the horses within two weeks as ordered, at today’s hearing, Jones again did not find that Winter had willfully violated her probation. Instead, he gave her until next Monday to comply with the order.

“I wasn’t buying it, but the judge did,” deputy district attorney Brian Brock said of Winter’s argument that the snow prevented her from moving the animals.

A second piece of the probation, dealing with about $390,000 that Winter was convicted of taking from a trust fund intended for the care of her elderly mother, is set to be resolved in March. Winter was convicted of felony criminal mistreatment and ordered to pay the funds back.

Winter’s mother died last May, and Winter’s daughter would have stood to inherit the money in the trust. That being the case, Brock said, the court offered Winter a deal; if she pays $71,000 to a trust fund for her daughter, the restitution will be satisfied.

The judge gave Winter until March 3 to come up with the full amount.

— Abby Sewell