By John Beauge | Special to PennLive
SUNBURY — The two Massachusetts residents charged with releasing nearly 700 minks from a Northumberland County fur farm are headed to court but with one less charge against each.
Christopher Jacob Legere, 25, of Brighton, and Cara Ashley Mitrano, 27, of Worcester, waived their preliminary hearings Tuesday.
Before them doing so District Judge Rachel Wiest-Benner announced the charge of conspiracy in unwarranted detention had been withdrawn. Each remains jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail. District Attorney Michael C. O’Donnell and the defense attorneys agreed not to raise a bail issue if the hearings were waived.
A hearing is scheduled Monday in common pleas court on Legere’s request for a downward bail modification. Mitrano is expected to join the motion.
Wiest-Benner also accepted the request by Legere, who is transgender, to be called Celeste.
The most serious charge against the two is being a member of a corrupt organization that O’Donnell said has a maximum sentence of 20 years. Those organizations in Worcester named in the arrest affidavits are “Firehouse” and “Collective A Go Go” which the FBI identified as anarchist communes.
Legere and Mitano are accused of using bolt cutters to break into the Richard H. Stahl Sons’ Inc fur farm east of Sunbury early on Oct. 19 and releasing 683 minks. Two individuals were captured on surveillance video releasing minks from pens.
As of Sunday, according to state police, 619 of them had been recovered but three later died. The mink raised for fur are susceptible to disease if released from their cages it was explained.
Legare and Mitrano were stopped by Ralpho Township police near Elysburg after relatives of Mark Stahl who operates the fur farm took a picture of a blue Subaru and got the license plate number. Included in items state police say were found in the car were bolt cutters and two headlamps. The two people seen in the video releasing the minks were wearing headlamps.
Among the charges against the two is ecoterrorism. It is ridiculous to call them terrorists, Legere’s attorney James Best said. They are two young people attempting to protect animals, he said.
The arrest affidavit states a call Legere made from the Northumberland County Jail illustrates he was paid $50,000 to come to Pennsylvania and release the minks.
Best disputes that, noting his client was telling the person he called that his bail was $150,000. The promise of $50,000 was related to bail, he maintains. Legere and Mitrano are activists fighting animal abuse, he said; they are not paid.
Charges against the two besides the corrupt organization and ecoterrorism counts are:
Agricultural vandalism, criminal mischief, theft, burglary, prowling at night, accidents involving damage to an attended vehicle, recklessly endangering another person, cruelty to animals, agricultural trespasser and depositing waste on a highway.
Following the court proceeding, O’Donnell commended the collaborative work of various law enforcement agencies in apprehending the two. Legere and Mitrano chatted with two supporters during the nearly two hours the hearing was delayed while the attorneys conferred.
North American Animal Liberation press officer Joseph Buddenberg on Monday after additional charges were filed issued this statement:
“Confining wild animals in tiny cages for their entire lives to kill them for luxury fashion is unacceptable.
“Those who open cages and release animals into their native habitat are heroic. The fur industry is inherently cruel and needs to be destroyed.”
Buddenberg spent two years in federal prison for releasing mink from fur farms.