(The News as We See It) by R.T. Fitch ~ Author/Director of HfH Advisory Council
Truth and Transparency Haunt “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis
Wallis and Duquette speaking to empty chairs at failed Horse Eater Summit last month - Photo courtesy of Wallis and Duquette
HOUSTON, (SFTHH) – In a recent Wyoming Newspaper report it was stated that embattled Wyoming State Rep. “Slaughterhouse” Sue Wallis was found to be innocent of a fraud allegation centered around a drawn out, year long raffle of a Dodge truck. Campbell County Wyoming Attorney Jeani Stone released her findings on Wednesday.
Wyoming resident and animal welfare advocate Patricia Fazio alleged that Wallis attempted to defraud horse slaughter supporters out of $30,000 in a bogus raffle and that “Slaughterhouse” Sue had sponsored and voted on bills in which she had a financial interest. Although the truck allegations were dismissed the remainder of the investigation is still running at full throttle.
“The investigation did not reveal that Legislator Wallis derived any personal benefit from the raffle,” Stone said in a press release.
“The Campbell County Attorney’s Office finds no criminal conduct in relation to Legislator Wallis’ participation in the selling of tickets for the raffle and no indication that Legislator Wallis derived any personal benefit from the raffle.”
Investigators found that Wallis sold 147 tickets in the raffle but didn’t keep any of the proceeds. She turned the money over to organizers, and the pickup eventually was raffled off in Las Vegas, Stone said.
But what the investigators failed to uncover was the fact that Sue Wallis WAS one of the organizers along with Oregon horse trainer Dave Duquette AND that the truck was allegedly won by one of Duquette’s personal friends and no valid proof of delivery is currently on record. Wallis in an email, on file, had earlier asked if she could keep the money as a donation and participants did not want to comply with her deviation from stated intent.
Still under investigation are the ethics violation charges as Wallis and Duquette had attempted to sell bogus bonds to finance a horse slaughter plant prior to their violation of the law being pointed out by astute equine welfare advocates from around the country. Wallis pushed a horse slaughter bill through her state’s Legislature, last year, but it has proven to be a waste of effort and Wyoming state tax payer’s dollars as horses are not recognized as food animals by the USDA and the federal government will not supply meat inspectors in horse slaughter plants; hence there can be no shipping of horse meat across state lines resulting in the fact that there are no horse slaughter plants in the U.S.. Wallis and her associate Duquette have expended a great deal of resources in attempting to convince both the American public and the federal government that the slump in the horse industry is caused by the lack of horse slaughter facilities while ignoring the economic downturn and the overpopulation of horses caused by excessive breeding from the likes of Duquette and associates. This total disconnect with the facts on this issue and their primordial effort to effect change on the backside of the problem versus attacking it at its source has reduced the credibility of the duo down to nothing more than stable bedding.
Meanwhile Stone has thrown the ethics charges back into the court of the state legislators as she claims she cannot investigate crimes that have occurred outside of the jurisdiction of her county.
Fazio says that she is thinking of submitting a supplemental complaint over other issues that have recently arisen.
“There’s a lot more to this case than meets the eye,” she said.
Wallis is also currently under investigation by Las Vegas police for a battery charge stemming from an alleged attack and injury against an equine advocate during Wallis and Duquette’s failed horse slaughter convention in Vegas last month.
