More signs of Florida's backdoor system--undermining investigations.

[Baitball Blogger]

Lake animal-services director says county attorney undermined probe into skinny cows

Lake County's animal-services director, who quit last week amid an investigation into whether a well-connected rancher underfed his cows and should be charged with animal cruelty and neglect, said Monday that county officials undermined her handling of the case.

Marjorie Boyd complained that the county attorney's office notified the lawyer for rancher Rex Farrior III, a former attorney from Tampa, about plans to seize the herd and asked her to back off — a contention County Attorney Sandy Minkoff disputed. Boyd said she quit her $77,000-a-year job primarily because she felt county officials had interfered in her enforcement of ordinances and showed preferential treatment to the prominent rancher.

"I feel I cannot enforce them [ordinances] only on select people," she said, breaking her silence in an interview with the Sentinel. "The ordinance was there for all of us. The public needs to be treated fairly."

Boyd — who worked for Lake for nearly 17 years, all but three years as the division's director — said the county typically doesn't alert owners in advance when animal-services officers plan to seize animals. Her boss, Gregg Welstead, retired immediately as $125,000-a-year director of the Conservation and Compliance Department on March 25. He said last week that the Farrior case impacted him.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-skinny-cows-lake-county-attorney-20130408,0,4456492.story