A Johnston woman, charged in May with neglecting her Dallas County horses, was arrested Monday for allegedly assaulting a neighbor to her horse farm.
Linda Kay Kilbourne, 75, of 6831 N.W. 54th Court, Johnston, was charged assault, forgery and trespassing with damage less than $200.
The assault and trespassing charges stemmed from an incident June 24, when Kilbourne allegedly entered a property at 33076 165th St. in rural Granger “with no legal right to be on the property.”
According to court records, Kilbourne was allegedly “told several times by the tenant” of the property “to vacate the property, and she refused to leave” and instead “grabbed the arm” of the tenant, “with the intent to place the victim in fear and cause pain, prior to leaving the property.”
The 165th Street property adjoins the property at 33034 165th St., where Kilbourne’s horses starved to death. The horse property is owned by Kori T. Kilbourne of Ozark, Missouri, according to county records.
The forgery charge stemmed from a Feb. 14 incident in which a Dallas County Deputy Sheriff issued a citation to Kilbourne for improper registration. An investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) disclosed that Kilbourne allegedly “intended to forge the state DOT document in order to defraud or elude sanctions that were put in place against her by the State. Kilbourne has received multiple citations for improper registration in the past and still used the forged DOT documents to try and keep from getting more citations.”
Warrants for the assault, trespassing and forgery charges were served Monday. Kilbourne is held in the Dallas County Jail on a $5,000 cash or surety bond. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the case of forgery July 20 in Dallas County District Court.
Kilbourne was charged May 13 with five counts of failure to dispose of a dead animal in connection with a number of decomposing horse carcasses found on her farm outside Granger. The case was investigated by the Dallas County Sheriff’s office, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
Kilbourne is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in the cases of the dead animals and assault and trespassing Aug. 12 in Dallas County District Court.
Kilbourne was convicted of violation of rules of motor vehicles dealers, manufacturers, distributors in 2005 in Dallas County District Court. She was arrested on charges of tampering with records in 1996 and selling vehicles at other than license location in 2001, but the charges were dismissed in Dallas County District Court.
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Her troubles are a result of a horse racing industry that grew huge then has been in decline ever since. What do you do with horses that no one wants? How do you dispose of dead horses with no money? You can find pictures of her on the internet when everyone was buying horses, and it looked like horse racing was going to be a huge boon, and it appears it was a good time for her and the industry. Now she has horses no one wants (but the slaughterhouses), no money to keep her fences up, and no money to bury the ones that die. Perhaps they did starve to death, but she was only charged with improper disposal, and the remaining horses’ conditions did not cause her to be charged. I hate to say it but cattle sometimes have to wait until spring as well to be buried if there are no funds to call National By-Products for a pick-up. No one cares as much about cows as about horses because most of us ride horses and do not eat them unlike Betsy the cow, so one gets charged. Out of sight, out of mind. My dogs will be with me until they die a natural death and to her, she likely feels the same about the horses she has had for years. It’s just too bad that horses cost way more to maintain than my dogs (even with that over-priced mail-order grain-free dog food that I buy) and the hole to bury them when they die can’t be dug with a shovel.
I just hope if they seize her horses, her favorite ones will be spared the fate that unwanted old horses inevitably meet.
She doesn’t breed racehorses. She bred halter horses, specifically AQHA and APHA.