This is the story that lead up the the Lee's raid on November 17, 2011..................................
In December 2009, someone living close to the Lee's called CPS on them, CPS unsubstantiated the allegations. However, the SAME caseworker came back 3 WEEKS later not from any new calls into CPS but because the Lee's refused to allow this caseworker to open a case on them. This time, the town Marshal (whom lives down the street from the Lee's) that had been stalking the Lee's for months was brought in on this (and amazingly is behind the 2011 raid). The Lee's were then coerced into allowing the town Marshal into their home after they told him they were not going to allow entry into their home because he didn't have a warrant.
Once again, on 4 different days the caseworker asked the Lee's if they would agree to her opening a case on the family. Each time the Lee's said no. The final time, the caseworker bribed them that if they allowed her to open a case she would get them a grant to remodel their home (ie, put in a new floor, kitchen cabinets, furnace repair, etc). The Lee's were remodeling their home with many updates, but once again, the Lee's said no and that they would fund their own remodel. With that the caseworker told her supervisor and the director of CPS that Samantha and Randell were cat hoarders. With that the director told this caseworker (acording to the CPS records obtained by Samantha Lee) to contact animal control. 2 days later, CPS calls Samantha and told her to stay put she was on her way back out to the house, even though Samantha told the caseworker she didn't have time to meet with her, the caseworker refused to listen and made Samantha stop to meet with her.
CPS came and told Samantha and Randell they were there to detain the children (without a warrant and without exigent circumstances) and by the way they called animal control and he would be there shortly. The Lee's were dumbfounded as the last thing either of these parents would do would be harm their children or their pets, both are the world to them. They knew something did not make sense but knew that animal control would set this straight. So when the ACO arrived at the home Samantha spoke with him and he stood in the Lee's living room for 20 minutes commending Samantha on a job well done. He questioned her about a few things just to assure her knowledge, in which Samantha picked up on his ill spoken terminology relating to animal care, but dismissed it. As the ACO went to leave he looked over at the caseworker as though to say goodbye and with that his demeanor changed and he said he would be back the following day to seize all the cats. It did not matter that the animals were under veterinary care just 30 days prior.
Fast forward to evidence provided. The ACO stated in his probable cause affidavit to Judge Roger Davis that he saw a cat in a cage with crusty eyes and had an emaciated appearance. Animal Control's veterinarian said this cat weighed 8.8 pounds and that this cat was considered OVERWEIGHT. Since the seizure Samantha has discovered ALL 15 cats he stole he killed. His excuse....."Mrs. Lee never returned for the cats so they were put to sleep". This is a lie, Samantha in September 2010 AFTER waiting on the bench warrant that the ACO told her and Randell that would be issued, contacted the investigator and told her that she wanted the cats back. The investigator told Samantha that they were still being used as evidence against her, but would tell the aco. The investigator kept on Samantha wanting to know where her horses were, this was 9 months AFTER the seizure, they could not find the horses and were still looking for them.
In 2011 Samantha filed a tort claim on the ACO for what he did in 2010. He had a duty to realize the cats in the Lee's care were being taken care of especially providing vetting documentation to him. The tort claim was filed in the end of Feb beginning of March 2011.
In October the Lee's horses were stolen by the Harrison County Sheriff's department and have been at a rescue since then. The sheriff's department stated the horses were at large, however they broke into a locked barn, the fence was cut and there was no other place the horses could gotten out of. The fence was a 5 foot tall wire mesh fence. The sheriff (who was a sheriff in the 2010 CPS incident) told Samantha she would probably be charged with something over the horses, Samantha told the Sheriff she didn't see how since she did not believe that the horses were out but that someone let them out. It was found out later that the Sheriff said the horse rescue cut the fence, the horse rescue told Samantha they were never on her property and that the mounted sheriff patrol brought the horses to the horse rescue. The Prosecutor saw no problem with the horses, just asked the Lee's to make the paddock bigger, however, this was October, the weather was not feasible to move a fence, so the Lee's have had to surrender the horses to the horse rescue due to the boarding fee was then more than they could pay. The horse rescue is now saying the Lee's owe $9000 on horses that the prosecutor asked the Lee's if they would surrender to the horse rescue so the rescue could adopt out to recoup their losses. Then later the prosecutor asked the Lee's if they would take the horses back. The Lee's couldn't because of raid in 2011 the Lee's have since, lost the property in which they had the horses.
November 16, 2011 Samantha Lee went to get 2 feral cats from a lady begging her for help (this lady was referred to Samantha, Samantha did not seek this person out like the ACO has tried to make the public believe), stating if Samantha did not take these cats that she would be evicted. Samantha is a very compassionate person and tries to help people, since the cats were feral she said she would help because the cats would not be part of Frisky Felines Foundation as Samantha told this woman she was full and could not take anymore, but would help her since they weren't coming to the rescue and would put them with a feral colony.
November 17, 2011 before noon the sheriff's department was on the Lee's porch.
Everyone that has heard the ENTIRE story believes the Lee's were set up to get these feral cats to be raided. NOTHING was ever stated as to as to why the ACO seized ALL the pets on the property, except that this lady that Samantha helped had a complaint on the condition of the house. (A house that no address was listed for, an address that is not on Samantha's business card, and the reason there has not been an address listed for the rescue is because the Lee's were remodeling their home during which it was not set up for visitors and to prevent drop offs), how did this lady get the Lee's address?????
In addition to this the Lee's were not allowed to see the warrant UNTIL AFTER all the animals were removed out of the house
The Lee home was a mess, something Samantha has never denied, BUT the house was a mess for VERY good reasons and I will state those here for you to clear up any rumors you may have heard or will hear, this is not a situation of hoarding, it is not a situation of being lazy, it is not a situation of being overwhelmed, it is a situation of a basement that was built wrong and floods when it rains alot, and requires a certain type of sump pump, the pump broke and one could not be obtained, which caused a 3000 sq ft house to become a 1500 sq ft house, trying downsizing and see how your house looks when things are running smoothly, now add in there the following, you then may understand the "mess".
1) In September the basement flooded, had 6 inches of water in it, then the sump pump broke and what water they could get out just came right back in. The Lee's went to get another sump pump and they could not get the type needed for their basement. Eventually they did get the correct sump pump but things had gotten worse in the basement to the point that the beginning of October Samantha and Randell MADE their 18 year old son move out of his basement bedroom until they could get all the water logged items outside and burned/tossed. Which was a task in itself. It was reported that Samantha made her 17 year old daugther sleep in this water logged room as late as November something, that is not true, that is why the basement looked the way it did, NO ONE was using the basement since Oct 1, it was being emptied out due to the mildew, everything was water logged and was going to be burned, but you can't burn wet things.
So Josh moved to the living room. Josh is a typical teen age boy and is not the cleanest unless he wants something from his parents then he is amazingly neat..lol From moving Josh to the living room the living room then became smaller, crowded and consisted of things the living room didn't have before which all belonged to Josh. In order to get Josh's "bedroom" in the living room Samantha had to take down her office and turn it into a sitting room to house the living room furniture, so Samantha had to condense the office (which is upstairs in the loft) to another part of the house. This meant purging items and getting rid of things that they no longer wanted, etc. They had to move decorations around to utilize attic space better which is why Halloween things were out.
Josh also asked Samantha if he could take over the kitchen (he wants to be a chef), Samantha knew not to do that, but Josh promised to keep up with it all and keep it clean. So the living room and 1/2 of the kitchen was then Josh's. With this, Josh as a typical kid enjoyed making the mess when cooking but never wanted to clean up afterward and Samantha like a typical mother had to get on him over and over.
2) On Nov 6 Samantha came down with a stomach virus that lasted for 6 days.
3) On Nov 7 Samantha had to take Parker's cat Gizmo to the vet for cosmetic surgery and Speck and adoption cat for a check up. This vet that Samantha uses is an 1 1/2 drive one way from the home. Samantha really did not feel like going but Gizmo had only a few days window to get the surgery, so she went. Samantha also is disabled and driving that far did her in just on her disability alone, not to mention the feeling of feeling nauseated while driving. So she got home and laid down in hopes of feeling better the next day.
4) Not feeling well, she called the vet and had Gizmo stay another night.
5) Nov 9, feeling a little better but not great Samantha went back out to get Gizmo.
6) Nov 10, feeling a little more better Samantha started cleaning some more, Candace was cleaning their bathroom and their bathroom walls had mildew on it (not mold as the media reported) and Candace was wiping the walls down (the mildew was on the glue from where they took the wall paper off in order to paint the walls). Samantha told Candace to stop wiping the walls down until she went to to the store to get facemasks. Animal Control or CPS has a photo where you can see the wall was being wiped down), but they are being charged for having mildew on the bathroom walls because Samantha halted cleaning that until face masks were available, they'd rather the family clean it than take safety precautions.
7) Nov 13, Kenya, an adoption cat started acted odd and Samantha had planned on taking her to the vet the following day.
8) Nov 14, at 6 am Josh woke Samantha up and asked her to take him to the ER, he too had a stomach virus, he was on his 6th day and Samantha told him just to stay home from school and try to sleep it off, he'd be fine as hers lasted 6 days. Josh insisted to go to the ER so Samantha got up and took him. After Josh was released (with a diagnosis of a stomach virus) she took Kenya to the vet. Kenya was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and was put on Clavamox. Samantha spent that night tending to Josh and Kenya and trying to get the house back in order as they were trying to get everything done as thanksgiving was the next week and they had guest coming and wanted to put the Christmas decorations up prior while leaving some for the tradition for the family.
9) Nov 15, Samantha had a long day the following day and she had to precooperate to prepare for that due to her disability. During this the lady about the feral cats called crying to Samantha about if she does not take the cats she is going to be evicted. Samantha told her she had way too much going on with her own cat and didn't really have time. The lady pleaded with Samantha that she'd be evicted and the cats are being shot at by the neighbor. So Samantha told her since she had to go to her town the next day she'd swing by and get them. (There is a big part of this meeting getting this cats that is not listed here). Samantha had Josh to go to the basement and clean up his room and throw out things that were ruined of his and bring up any dishes and get them washed. Josh brought up the dishes but sat them on the counter and in the sink and didn't wash them up.
10) Nov 16, Samantha waited for the vet to call about Kenya's blood work. She called and Samantha told the vet that Chargheera and Mufasa had started with sneezing and coughing, but Kenya was doing better, but didn't bounce back as quickly as Samantha felt she should had. Samantha asked the vet if she could give Mufasa and chargheera their own Clavamox. The vet said "legally I can't give them their own Clavamox but I can give Kenya a refill and ok that you give it to those 2 cats and any cat that gets it." Samantha then stated "since these 2 are getting it, chances are the whole kennel will get it, what should I do at this point?". The vet then told her "I can order you L Lysine and you can give that to all of them and hopefully that will ward off some of them from getting it........." So Samantha ordered the L Lysine for the shelter and the vet told Samantha to come up and get another bottle of Clavamox and start Chargheera and Mufasa on it and and gave Kenya another prescription in additon to her Clavamox. So Samantha left the house to get Josh at school to take him to his other school, had to stop at the animal hospital, drop Josh off, head to get the cats she was going to help and then headed out to see how much it was going to cost to get her van fixed. Then after wrapping up her errands, Samantha picked up Josh and headed home. Samantha got home and discovered Candace and Parker did not do their chores. This made Samantha mad as there was so much that needed done by Friday night. Samantha did not want to wake Candace because of school, so she punished them instead of doing their chores for them, she left them to do the next day after school with additonal chores. If it wasn't holiday coming up she would had grounded them from their friends like she normally does.
11) Nov 17 Samantha got up to get a head start on getting the house back in order and since she punished Candace and Parker she was trying to get her chores out of the way so she could help the kids get the house back in order, Samantha and Randell soon learned they were being staked out.
The 2 dogs (Brownie and Coal) were stolen based on the ACO saying he could see Coal's spine and ribs from a distance, implying that Coal was emaciated, but the state veterinarian stated that Coal was of average weight. Then months later the ACO made this comment about Coal and I quote... "I would consider him to be of average weight when I got him". So there are 2 statements and 2 witnesses saying that Coal was not emaciated as he stated to get an ok to seize the dogs while waiting on the seizure warrant. The search and seizure warrant was based on Coal being emaciated and that they also saw emaciated cats and cats with upper respiratory infections. There were ONLY 3 sick cats and NONE of those had an active URI, Kenya got sick on that Sunday, Chargheera that Tuesday and Mufasa that Wednesday, the raid happened the following day that Thursday! I would like to know why the state vet reports that 21 cats scored a 1-2 on the bcs, which says they were emaciated. I had a few overweight cats. How can NO cat on the bcs not score a 6 if they were overweight??? The state vet said, when she examined the cats that NONE of the cats were of average weight. I want answers as to HOW none of the cats were of average weight when I have pictures from CPS that were taken the day of the raid that show 3 overweight cats in their own photos!!!!
It is rumored that there was feces all over the floors, on the kids beds, on the table, counters, etc. That is a lie, yes, there was SOME feces in the house, it was generalized by the back door which was by a litter box and another litter box. A couple of cats were being treated for coccidea and had loose stools. The aco and the cops both testified that these cats had it coming out of both ends, and that is a lie. They say the poo was old and that is a lie also, I checked the floors before I went to bed (by the litter boxes) because I wanted to make sure the litter boxes didn't need to be scooped before I went to bed, because if they did the cats may go outside of the boxes before I got up in the morning, that is Parker's job to maintain the main floor litter boxes, there was some poo in the boxes but not very much for that many cats, there was enough room and fresh litter available in the boxes. They are saying the litter boxes weren't touched in weeks or months, Parker just washed, sanitized and refilled the litter boxes that Monday evening, you can see the fresh litter in the photos. The reason there was feces there is because we were staked out for 5 hours and I could not tend to the main floor at all. Not to mention when they came in the house they didn't "walk" through the house, they were skipping around, flying about like they were giddy children. The cats were freaking out and I have never seen my cats act like that. First the cats were all calm, laying around, but them started running about the house. It was really sad to not be able to comfort them, I think most of them knew what was going on. The floors were marked up for tracking the water from the basement throughout the house and coming in and out of the back door.
That pretty much describes what happened. Was the house a mess, yes, would a simple, clean it up surfice, yes, were the animals generally in good health, yes, did anything warrant a seizure, no!
The ACO is out to destroy Samantha and has already defamed her on TV and to the news papers, why? Is it because she filed a complaint and now it may be found out what he has done and possibly is doing to other people and how for no reason he is killing HEALTHY animals that STILL LEGALLY belong to people? Does he want to give her such a bad name that no one will believe her once she speaks the truth to the community of how he is hurting innocent animals? Is it because she is standing up for her family's civil rights? When asked what his job consists of he stated and I quote "seizures, impounds and helping the sheriffs department build criminal cases." Really? Since when does an ACO's job consist of seizures and helping build criminal cases? What happened to issuing citations/warnings?
These people behind this illegal seizure need to be fire and put in jail for child and animal abuse as the accusers are the abusers.