She filed a Notice of Appeal, as well as an Emergency Motion For Stay Pending Appeal on November 4th, stating that an appeal was impossible if my animals were killed or sold, as "my client cannot be made whole if the animals are euthanized or sold".
A hearing was held on November 5th, again with Hitzman, and the Emergency Motion For Stay Pending Appeal was denied.
March of 2010, an appeal was filed in Hernando County. By this time, I was packing and had already purchased a home out of state. I did not have much hope as my feeling were that the entire County was corrupt. My opinion was that few lawyers would want to make enemies within a system that they had to function and survive within.
The outcome of this hearing was that my mother's property was severed from the entire ordeal. This was like shutting the door AFTER the house had been robbed...but I had to accept whatever crumbs I was thrown at this point. The horse and the cow that had been taken from her property were never returned.
As for the 2 charges of animal cruelty that my husband and I were charged with...it appeared that Tossoni had disappeared by then, or perhaps he was deep-sixed as they say. He had been strangely absent during the hearings, as if perhaps he was seen as a liability at that point.
I did not want to return to Florida, and I did not want to leave my mother and my son, and both my husband and I certainly could not go, leaving my elderly mother and son to fend for themselves...so I agreed to pay a fee to avoid court altogether. $50 a piece was all it took, and I admitted to nothing, but agreed never to own animals again in Hernando County, which was a cinch since I now lived about 2000 miles away. I did not see it as being worth my while to return and fight the charges, because it was apparent to me that in Hernando County, innocent people are guilty if the County wants it to be so; the game is rigged, the table is tilted.
What is interesting, is that no complaint against me was found in the Court’s file and/or in the Record on Appeal, yet, an Order of Care was filed by the lower court...based on a complaint that was not there. How is that possible? This is perhaps more difficult for me to comprehend than the fact that my Constitutional rights had being violated; I already knew that.
Here is a copy of the initial brief. Each page can be enlarged and viewed in sequence.
