Wednesday 16th March, 2016:

The court rooms in West Palm Beach County Court house are heating up with the three extreme animal cruelty cases that have entered into the final prosecution phases of the investigations. These investigations that were conducted independently by ARM, ended with the largest tactical strike raid and animal rescue in US history, executed late in 2015.

With the Rancho Garcia case set to go to trial, defendants Jorge Garcia and Rafael Ramirez, guided by their defense attorney Andrew Stine, today attempted to suppress ARM’s audio and video footage of it’s undercover investigations upon the illegal animal slaughter farm, and horse slaughter operation.

What they didn’t expect, was that for the second time in just over a month, the judge ruled to deny the plea. The first attempt was made from the Medina farm operators with the same outcome and for the same reasoning, being that neither of the illegal slaughter farms that were publicly butchering animals and selling their meat for human consumption, had any clear expectations of privacy. Therefore the judge did not see a valid enough point to throwing out audio and video footage obtained over the six month period.

This now tallies three victories for ARM of the defendants who attempted to suppress critical footage of some of the worst and most brutal animal torture, neglect, suffering and butchering alive, on each of the illegal slaughter farm operations.

Had this footage been suppressed it would most certainly have effected ARM’s otherwise strong case. Instead, the judges rulings in ARM’s favor is setting the tone for monumental success in the movement for animal protection and are paving way to a new era of not only putting an end to illegal and inhumane animal cruelty operations, but they are also setting a standard of harsher penalties if convicted of such heinous crimes.

State Attorney prosecutor Judy Arco, who represents the States case in this matter, presented evidence that the farms’ gates were open, that the property was easily visible from the road with no barrier and along with the testimony of ARM’s key witness, that there were signs promoting business and sales as well as a consistent flow of customers on a regular basis.

The case for both Garcia and Ramirez are set for trial later this month and the trial of Medina is set for May, after they fired Stine as their lawyer following the audio and video suppression was denied for their case.

ARM will stay updated on these cases as they unfold.