By Crescenzo Vellucci
The Vanguard Sacramento Bureau Chief
SANTA ROSA, CA – The prosecution rested here in Santa Rosa County Superior Court Wednesday in the trial of lawyer Wayne Hsiung for his part in an “open rescue” of factory farm animals in Sonoma County in 2018 and 2019.
Opening testimony this week wasn’t without some surprises, according to proponents of the rescues.
Hsiung—who has been unable to talk about his case because of a judge-imposed “gag order”—is facing two misdemeanor trespass and two felony conspiracy charges.
Hundreds of other activists allegedly participated in the action to “rescue” injured animals, but some took plea deals and many others were not even charged, leaving Hsiung alone to face the charges.
The defense—Hsiung is representing himself—is expected to begin to call witnesses Thursday, including Alexandra Paul, a screen and television actress, who was found not guilty for rescuing animals in California earlier this year.
After a series of protracted pretrial hearings in which the court gutted much of what the defense had hoped to use at trial, the defense apparently will have less it will be able to tell the jury about efforts to rescue hundreds of injured animals.
Judge Laura Passaglia McCarthy has excluded key defense witnesses, and video, photographs and other evidence the defense had hoped to show why activists did what they did.
The judge said it would be too prejudicial to the jury for them to see the condition of the animals. Hsiung and some other witnesses will be allowed to describe the conditions they filmed or reviewed that helped form their belief that they could aid the animals inside Sunrise and Reichardt.
Excluded by the court were Dr. Laura Dixon, an animal scientist specializing in the poultry industry the defense intended to call as an expert witness, and Dr. Armaiti May, a veterinarian who made an assessment regarding animal cruelty at Reichardt Duck Farm in 2014. The judge said conditions in 2014 are irrelevant to the conditions in 2019, reported Direct Action Everywhere (DxE).
Passaglia McCarthy also said the defense’s Jonathan Frohnmayer, a lawyer and former defendant in the case, could only “testify about his observations at the demonstrations including what he saw Hsiung doing, but not about his personal experiences contacting authorities regarding animal cruelty,” said DxE.
The judge did grant a defense request for Sunrise Farms and Reichardt Duck Farm documents of the conditions at their facilities, but agreed with the prosecution to a protective order, preventing the documents from being shared with the public.
Judge McCarthy also has prohibited evidence from an investigation and rescue at McCoy’s Poultry, and a Sonoma County Animal Services’ report that corroborates the defense’s claims of criminal animal cruelty.
The court has barred comments from previous co-defendants, other activists involved not charged and DxE animal rescuers who have been acquitted in other court cases.
The judge did, however, rule the defense could use “mistake of fact” as a defense in the case of Sunrise Farms, where the defendant said he did not believe he was being ordered to leave the premises.
And the judge granted a defense motion allowing the use of the “mistake of law” defense under CA Penal Code section 597(e), which the defense has claimed gives it the “right to enter private property to aid animals deprived of food and water.”
The prosecution opposed the ruling, stating concerns about the “gruesome” images of animals that might be shown.
Late last week and earlier this week, Weber, co-owner of Sunrise Farms, testified and claimed 800,000 birds on the farm were “all receiving adequate care.”
However, activists noted—and Weber admitted on the stand—that birds inside the cages and some outside them would not have been able to access water after Deputy District Attorney Robert Waner showed footage from a livestream of Sunrise Farms.
Weber still dismissed any suggestion of an emergency or neglect, and in his cross.
Hsiung noted that despite the “Certified Humane” at the farm, inspections are “conveniently” scheduled in advance and are paid for by the company, raising questions about the authenticity of such certifications.
Weber maintained the environment was “stress-free” for the birds, but admitted under cross that “it was not uncommon to see cannibalism among the birds due to heightened stress levels and as a byproduct of disease,” according to the defense.
Weber admitted on the stand he supported the prosecution of Hsiung to “silence activists,” and didn’t care for legislation to protect animals as “purposefully vague to tie up the market.” He also admitted, despite the nearly million animals, he only had one poultry veterinarian for consultation once per month and only a handful of employees to oversee the hundreds of thousands of birds.
Hsiung, said court observers, “recited the specific standards set by the law, highlighting that animals should have the ability to stand up, lie down, and fully extend their limbs without coming into contact with cage walls or other animals.
Another prosecution witness, Leland Trumbo, is a construction and maintenance employee of Reichardt Duck Farm. He confirmed, after viewing a video of the action, he had been warned by the Farm Bureau about a “large group heading to Petaluma. He said employees walked through the barns to make sure food and water systems were functioning
John Reichardt, owner of Reichardt Duck Farm, testified although he was biased, he believed the ducks on his farm are being raised and slaughtered in a “humane manner.”
Sergeant Daniel Ager and Deputy John Fomasi with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office also testified, with Fomasi insisting no laws were broken at the Sunrise Farm regarding the treatment of animals, but admitted he didn’t go inside or review any of the documented evidence Hsiung had of animal cruelty with him on that day, or read the expert opinions on violations of California Penal Code section 597.
More than 100 people affiliated with DxE were arrested on felony charges initially after, according to DxE, they provided “emergency medical aid” to “sick and suffering animals,” because, they claim, “county and state authorities ignored repeated reports of criminal animal abuse at these facilities.”
Hsiung, in opening arguments, said evidence used by the prosecution—including their videos and livestream—were provided by him and other activists, including their statements about what they did and why did it.
Hsiung told the jury his case is not about what happened, but why it happened and the intent by activists, emphasizing they intended to “aid animals” they believe they were “legally entitled” to assist—their intent, he explained, was no to break the law by trespassing.
“We do everything we can to be transparent because you can’t fight the shadow with more shadow. You can only fight the shadow with the light,” Hsiung said.
Jurors were told by the defense—Hsiung—he would show, as he noted, his intent was not to commit a crime, but to “exercise” a legal right under CA Penal Code section 597(e) that allows providing aid to sick and injured animals.
The accused added the intent was to follow the law non-violently, and that law enforcement said they would walk through the facility with activists to look for animal cruelty and remove sick birds.
However, Hsiung charged the officer didn’t keep his word and the farm was not investigated by police for violations of CA law.
Hsiung, according to supporters, explained “he did not have any involvement in planning the Reichardt action and, in fact, all participants of the Sunrise action were ‘walled off’ from being involved in the planning for Reichardt.”
The accused said he “connected activists with former federal prosecutor, Bonnie Klapper, who wrote a legal opinion stating that she believed, after reviewing Reichardt footage, that activists had a legal right to give aid to these animals under Penal Code 597(e).”
Hsiung closed his opening argument by repeating that the “activists’ intent was not to commit a crime, but to exercise what they believed was their legal right to help even the smallest creatures found collapsed on the factory farm floor,” said supporters in court Thursday.
Hsiung’s charges, according to court documents, relate specifically to a May 29, 2018, rescue at Sunrise Farms, an egg supplier to Whole Foods and Costco, and a June 3, 2019, rescue and occupation at Reichardt, the largest duck farm in California.
DxE said its activists took action in “broad daylight to openly rescue animals, supported by a legal opinion on the right to rescue animals from abuse under the doctrine of legal necessity (now barred by the judge) and California law. They removed 37 sick hens from Sunrise and 32 sick ducks from Reichardt.”
The defense maintains the mass open rescue at Sunrise was “prompted by investigations that occurred in 2017 and 2018, which found that despite Proposition 2 banning intensive confinement, Sunrise was confining tens of thousands of birds in towering 15-foot tall rows of tightly packed cages, inside of which many were sick, dying, and dead.”
DxE charged investigators “found violations of California’s animal cruelty statute, Penal Code 597, including injured birds who were unable to access food or water.
DxE noted, at Reichardt Duck Farm, an investigation by Mercy for Animals in 2014, and another by DxE in 2019, “revealed violations of animal cruelty law, including diseased ducks left on their backs, unable to get up, and consequently unable to reach food or water.”
DxE. citing victories in trials of activists who did open rescues in St. George, UT and Merced, CA, said “if this series of legal wins continues, it could open the floodgates to a new view of animals under the law: as legal persons, not property.”
It’s the second trial involving the “open rescue” of factory farm animals in California this year. In March, a Central Valley jury in Merced County Superior Court found Hollywood actress and “Baywatch” television star and San Francisco Bay Area activist Alicia Santurio not guilty of misdemeanor theft of two slaughterhouse-bound chickens.
Paul and Santurio, who are listed as defense witnesses in Santa Rosa, admitted they “rescued” two chickens, Ethan and Jax, from a truck in front of a Foster Farms slaughterhouse on Sept. 28, 2021 because the animals were suffering. https://www.davisvanguard.org/2023/03/jury-finds-baywatch-actress-and-bay-advocate-not-guilty-of-theft-for-rescuing-injured-chickens-from-outside-foster-farms-slaughterhouse/
