An application for a woman charged with several counts of neglect of animals to go through the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program was rejected.
Indiana County District Attorney Pat Dougherty announced in a news release that he denied the ARD application for 38-year-old Crystal Thornsberry of Rochester Mills. She faces 12 counts of neglect of animals for an investigation that goes back to September of 2017. Thornsberry, the owner of Heart Felt Equine Rescue was charged after complaints were filed that several horses under her care at her property in Conemaugh Township were not getting enough nourishment or shelter. She said at the time she was moving the horses to a property in Rochester Mills, but in November, neighbors notified investigators that two horses were dead in the field, and that horses that were taken to the Rochester Mills property, but again, they had no food, water or shelter.
Thornsberry had filed an application for ARD on January 23rd. Her case will now be placed on the criminal call list.
