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UWY-CV-21-5028294-S
NANCY BURTON SUPERIOR COURT
JUDICIAL DISTRICT
Vv. OF WATERBURY
DAVID PHILIP MASON
ELINORE CARMODY
DENNIS GIBBON
SUSAN WINTERS
JULIA PEMBERTON, FIRST SELECTMAN
TOWN OF REDDING, CONNECTICUT
TOWN OF REDDING, REDDING CT,
MARK O’DONNELL, CHIEF, POLICE
DEPARTMENT OF REDDING,
CONNECTICUT (Individually and in
His Official Capacity)
CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
BRYAN HURLBURT, COMMISSIONER,
CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE (Individually and in
His Official Capacity
CHARLES DELLAROCCO, (Individually
And in His Official Capacity as Animal
Control Officer of the Connecticut
Department of Agriculture)
BUILDING DEPARTMENT, TOWN OF
REDDING, CONNECTICUT
HEALTH DEPARTMENT, TOWN OF
REDDING, CONNECTICUT
POLICE DEPT., TOWN OF REDDING CT JANUARY 15, 2022
THIRD AMENDED COMPLAINT
1. Plaintiff Nancy Burton has resided for 35 years at 147 Cross Highway in
Redding, Connecticut.
2. Plaintiff is a former reporter for The Associated Press, an author and a book
editor; and for some 20 years, she maintained a successful practice of primarily
pro bono public-interest law in Connecticut in the area of environmental law.
3. During her residency in the Town of Redding, plaintiff has contributed in many
ways to the preservation and betterment of the town in a host of ways, all on a
pro bono publico basis, including playing a key role in the permanent
preservation of three large parcels of pastureland of outstanding scenic value
along Cross Highway (which had been actively proposed for subdivision and
~ --housing development); initiating the successful campaign to-designate Cross
Highway a “scenic road”; leading a petition drive to the Board of Selectmen to
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create a “Mark Twain Historic District” to include the “Stormfield Estate” to which
the celebrated author retired and where he died in 1910 and other nearby
properties of unique scenic and historic value which had been occupied by Mark
Twain’s biographer Albert Bigelow Paine and Mark Twain's friend Dan Beard
(author, illustrator and co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America), and others,
which properties, or most of them including Stormfield, were under actual threat
of subdivision development (the Redding First Selectman at the time, Mary Anne
Guitar, rejected the petition, but a Superior Court judge, Hon. William Sullivan,
later to become Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, upheld the
petition in a lawsuit brought by plaintiff, Nancy Burton v. Mary Anne Guitar.
Among other successful legal endeavors involving Redding, plaintiff achieved an
unprecedented victory for a Redding property owner after the Redding Health
Department sought to hold her in contempt after the Connecticut Department of,
Transportation (“DOT”) deliberately excavated too close to her septic system in
order to bring about condemnation of her property to benefit an adjoining
corporate development scheme; in the course of the proceedings, DOT
abandoned its effort to obtain her property by eminent domain.
In 1999, plaintiff obtained a temporary restraining order as attorney on behalf of
environmental organizations which kept Millstone Unit 2 shut down for a period
of 10 days during the peak period of indigenous Niantic River winter flounder
larvae migration to Niantic Bay as a step to protect the subspecies of fish from
collapse and extirpation due to the powerful suction effect of the plant’s seawater
intakes; this victory was also unprecedented.
Plaintiff was nominated by the Connecticut Green Party to be its candidate for
the Office of Attorney General after she had run for the office of state
representative; during the latter campaign members of the Redding Zoning
Commission, including its chairman, illegally took down plaintiff's campaign signs
with the slogan “Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Government”; Hon. Douglas
Mintz of the Connecticut Superior Court ruled in plaintiff's favor in a suit she
brought to restore the campaign signs.
Beginning on or about 2008, plaintiff with others initiated the Mothers Milk Project
(www. MothersMilkProject.org) to collect samples of goat and human milk for
independent laboratory analysis for the presence of radioisotopes routinely
released into the environment by the Millstone and Indian Point nuclear power
plants; the project was initiated after plaintiff became of aware of state
government records that revealed that Katie the Goat, who resided five miles
downwind of Millstone in Waterford, Connecticut, produced milk with excessively
high levels of inter alia strontium-90 and strontium-89, both deadly carcinogens,
particularly harmful to women, children and human embryos and fetuses.
Plaintiff adopted Katie the Goat and brought her to live at her Redding home,
where plaintiff continued to test Katie’s milk, and that of her progeny, for the
— —presence of radioisotopes; various samples revealed the presence of strontium-__ _ —
90 and strontium-89 in the milk produced by Katie the Goat while she grazed in
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Redding, as reported in detail in an article titled “The nuclear safety debate hits
home’ published in the Connecticut Post. Stamford Advocate and Danbury
News-Times newspapers on July 19, 2011, including concentrations of deadly
strontium-89 of 2.1 picocuries per liter and .4 picocuries per liter.
Other sampling by the Mothers Milk Project revealed a concentration of 3.3
picocuries per liter of strontium-89 in human breast milk collected in 2009 on
Orange County, New York, in the Hudson River Valley downwind of Indian Point
and 5 picocuries per liter of strontium-89 in milk collected from a goat grazing in
Dutchess County, New York, downwind of Indian Point.
10. Plaintiff reported this information to health and environmental authorities in
Connecticut, who took no action although required to undertake such
environmental sampling of goat milk for the presence of radioisotopes dispersed
by nuclear power plants pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §22a-135(a)(4).
11. The State of Connecticut per its Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection (“DEEP”) and Department of Agriculture (“DOAG”) has continuously
and repeatedly refused to do so in violation of the law.
12. The failure of the State of Connecticut to monitor milk taken from goats grazing
downwind of Millstone and Indian Point robs the public — particularly mothers and
their embryos, fetuses and young children — of governmental protection from a
known health hazard of consequence and shields the nuclear industry from
government surveillance of the true public health dangers and consequences of
routine, let alone emergency, operations of Millstone and Indian Point.
13. Earlier sampling of milk collected by DEEP from goats grazing within two miles of
Millstone have revealed dangerous concentrations of radioisotopes, including
strontium-90 and strontium-89.
14. Strontium-90 has a half-life of about 30 years, meaning that it takes a period of
30 years before half the radioactivity in the sample has decayed.
15. Strontium-89, in contrast, is a reliable indicator of the presence of nuclear power
plant releases of radioactivity into the environment during routine operations; it
has a half-life of approximately 50 days, meaning that if strontium-89 is detected
in a goat milk sample, the strontium-89 was released from a nuclear fission event
recently and not far away because otherwise it would evade detection and
measurement.
16. The Mothers Milk Project is dedicated to inter alia development of a scientific
database to monitor and track dispersal of radioactivity routinely released by
Millstone and Indian Point and to correlate such information with a database of
incidences of cancer, diseases of the immune system, premature deaths, birth
defects, genetic mutations, miscarriages and other serious and often fatal
outcomes of human and animal exposure to radioactivity routinely released by
Millstone and Indian Point in order to motivate the State of Connecticut to take
appropriate action to eliminate such routine releases of radioactivity to the air.
—- ----- 17.At the. same.time, Millstone routinely releases radioactive waste materials into ~
the Long Island Sound and the public beach zones surrounding Millstone in East
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Lyme (including Niantic) and Waterford. Including Hole-in-the-Wall Beach and
Pleasure Beach; it is well known in such communities that clusters of brain
cancer incidences, birth defects, breast cancer, lung cancer, miscarriages and
many other fatal diseases occur in populations residing in the vicinity of Millstone
and such popular recreation areas.
18. The State of Connecticut actively impedes and frustrates public awareness of
Millstone’s routine releases of radioactive and toxic chemical materials into the
Long Island Sound at such location.
19. Indeed, in a recent decision of the Connecticut Supreme Court, officially released
on January 21, 2021, the state’s highest court misled the public about such
radioactive releases by characterizing them as “alleged” releases when, e.g., the
record in the case is replete with data of Millstone’s actual and admitted releases
of radioactive materials to the Long Island Sound via its “quarry cut,” including a
report in evidence submitted to the federal government by Millstone’s owners
and operators that during a recent five-year period Millstone releases 1.74 million
gallons (145 millocuries) of fission and activation products (“radwaste’”) to the
Long Island Sound, a figure shortly to be increased by 9.1% in a power “uprate.”
Other reports submitted by Millstone’s owners and operators admitting catching
a fish in Niantic Bay (an estuary of the Long Island Sound) contaminated with
cesium-137, a carcinogen the Millstone personnel admitted was released during
routine Millstone operations. Medical experts have linked the radioactive
contamination of Niantic Bay by Millstone routine operations to the near-fatal
medical condition of a boy born to a mother who routinely swam in Niantic Bay
during her pregnancy, unaware of its radioactive contamination. See plaintiff's
Motion for Reconsideration En Banc dated February 8, 2021, as filed in Nancy
Burton v. Regina McCarthy, SC 20466, pages 6-7.
20. Katie the Goat was diagnosed with terminal thoracic cancer in 2012; plaintiff took
Katie, who had become a goat celebrity championing an anti-nuclear platform at
tallies across the state and on a farewell tour to the White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, on March 11, 2012, the one-year
anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.
21. Prior to such tour, plaintiff had communicated an invitation to the then-First
Family to adopt Katie’s daughter, Dana Blue-Eyes, as a White House pet as well
as the First Family's personal radiation monitor.
22. Then-First Lady Michelle Obama responded to the invitation through her press
office as follows on March 9, 2012 at 1:31 PM: “Thank you for your interest in the
First Family. Your offer is extremely generous and seems like a fantastic
opportunity, it is truly appreciated. Unfortunately, we are unable to satisfy your
request. We apologize that we could not be more helpful. Again thank you so
much for such a kind gesture. We wish you well in the future.”
23. Katie died in 2012, but plaintiff continues to test the milk produced by her
~ ~~ - _progeny residing at her Ri ing address; some samples have tested positively, __ _
for strontium-90 and strontium-89.
24.In September 2017, the Redding Zoning Commission issued a cease and desist
order directing plaintiff to reduce the number of goats on her property to no more
than nine within ten days of said order; there was no manner available within
which plaintiff could so reduce the herd other than by subjecting them to the
brutality and cruelty of slaughter.
25. Plaintiff is opposed to the slaughter of innocent animals on grounds of her moral
and religious convictions.
26. Therefore, since issuance of said order on, and before issuance of said order,
plaintiff has endeavored conscientiously and in good faith to reduce the goat
herd by locating individuals and rescue sanctuaries interested in adopting such
goats and providing them with good care, nutrition and shelter for the duration of
their natural lives.
27.\n addition, as is expressly allowed by law, plaintiff filed a land management plan
with the Redding Zoning Commission by which she proposed to reduce the herd
by relocating most of the goats to good homes with the help of an animal rescue
organization, Animal Nation, Inc., which agreed in a binding contract to find good
homes for all of plaintiff's goats except nine which she intended to keep without
protest by the Zoning Commission.
28. Animal Nation, Inc. breached the contract before fulfilling its obligations; the
plaintiff has brought suit to enforce compliance with the contract, which suit is
pending. Nancy Burton v. Animal Nation, Inc., DBD-CV-19-5015207-S.
29.Responding to an anonymous complaint, the Connecticut Department of
Agriculture ("DOAG) assigned one of its animal control officers to investigate
plaintiff's goats and their care and living conditions in 2017.
30. At the conclusion of the investigation, which included two visits personally
supervised by Mary Lis, DVM, then-state veterinarian, said DOAG animal control
officers concluded in a written report dated June 15, 2018: “At the time of this
investigation, all goats on the property appear to be in good condition with food
and water available.”
31.In the meantime, Animal Nation, Inc. and its staff and volunteers were successful
in relocating between 30 and 40 goats to what it represented were “good
homes.”
32. However, in March 2018, Animal Nation, Inc. breached the contract with plaintiff
and refused to complete the performance of activities it committed itself to
completing in the contract, including locating and moving more goats to good
homes, assisting in securing fencing, repairing and upgrading shelters and
providing veterinarian care as appropriate and it remains obligated to do so.
33. Further, since on and before September 2017, plaintiff has by other means
endeavored conscientiously to reduce the goat herd, frequently by inviting
potential adopters to visit the property to observe the goats.
34. Further, plaintiff attempted to enlist the support and assistance of the Town of
———-- ~- Redding in_a variety of ways, including but.not limited to the following:
By requesting that the Board of Selectmen convene a public meeting at
which plaintiff would make a presentation about the goats, familiarize the
community with the Mothers Milk Project and encourage town residents to
consider adopting goats; First Selectman Julia Pemberton did not respond
to the request; and
By requesting that the Board of Selectmen permit plaintiff to tack an
attractive flyer to the Town Hall community bulletin board by way of
informing the community and requesting its support for plaintiff's “Good
Homes for Goats” appeal; First Selectman Pemberton did not respond to
the request; and
By presenting a sample of freshly-collected milk from one of her goats to
First Selectman Pemberton with a request that she forward the sample to
the DEEP to analyze it for the presence of radioisotopes; without notice to
plaintiff, First Selectman Pemberton allowed the sample of goat milk to be
discarded rather than analyzed without notifying plaintiff; and
By directing correspondence to science teachers at the Redding high
school and middle school requesting that they consider adopting some of.
plaintiffs goats and incorporate them into the science curriculum; the
teachers did not respond.
35. Defendant David Philip Mason (“Mason”) resides at 146 Cross Highway,
Redding, Connecticut, across the street from the plaintiff. Once a practicing
attorney in New York City, he was ordered suspended from the practice of law by
order of the Appellate Division of the State of New York, November 20, 2013;
upon information and belief, said order remains in effect.
36. Defendant Elinore Carmody (“Carmody”) and her husband, Dennis Gibbon
(“Gibbon”), reside at 135 Cross Highway adjacent to plaintiff.
37. Defendant Susan Winters (“Winters”) resides at 50 Seventy Acres Road in
Redding, Connecticut; with no apparent education, training or professional
credentials in professional journalism, she operates a scurrilous online gossip
sheet called “hellonewsct.com” focusing on Redding; since the closure of the
Redding Pilot, a weekly newspaper with a large readership in Redding, the
Redding community has been deprived of a responsible source for news
focusing on Redding.
38. Defendant Julia Pemberton has served and continues to serve as First
Selectman of the Town of Redding during the period of time pertinent to this
Amended Complaint; she has actively fed a frenzy of manufactured goat hysteria
in the community through social media and other means without ever having
discussed any issues of concern with plaintiff about her goats and without
meeting the goats or making any effort to become informed and aware of the
goats’ natural behavior or contribution to the Mothers Milk Project.
39. Defendant Police Department of the Town of Redding and certain of its
a - personnel have given the Town of Redding negative notoriety in the recent past _ —
when inter alia the then-chief of police directed Redding police officers not to
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rescue a Redding resident in the act of hanging himself in suicidal despair (
misdeed by the Redding police for which the Town of Redding paid the
deceased man’s surviving infant son, through representatives, a large monetary
settlement); and the Redding Police Department pronounced a Black lawyer the
victim of a suicide without an investigation when he was found with a bullet
wound to the back of his head and footprints on his attire covering his back (the
man’s family cried foul and the Black Lives Matter movement has taken up the
cause of demanding a complete investigation).
40. Defendant Mark O’Donnell at all times pertinent to this Amended Complaint has
served as Chief of the Redding Police Department.
41.Defendant Bryan Hurlburt is Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of
Agriculture(‘DOAG”) and responsible for the agency’s lawful discharge of its
statutory duties and the lawful conduct of the DOAG’s staff and its agents and
representatives
42. Defendant Charles DellaRocco, at all times pertinent to the Amended Complaint,
has served as a DOAG animal control officer.
43. Defendant Building Department of the Town of Redding is the municipal agency
charged with aspects of enforcement of the state building code.
44. Defendant Health Department of the Town of Redding is the municipal agency
charged with aspects of enforcement of the state Public Health Code.
45. Defendants Carmody and Winters have widely and publicly circulated and
published false and defamatory screeds targeting plaintiff, accusing her falsely
inter alia of “using the law to break the law’; although plaintiff timely demanded
retraction of the false and offensive publications, neither Carmody nor Winters
complied.
46. Prior to the Zoning Commission's issuance of the cease and desist order, said
Mason, Carmody, Gibbons and others took to harassing plaintiff and interfering
with her ability to carry out her objective to rehome most of her goats in the
following ways, among others:
a. Screaming at plaintiff's visitors as they stood on her property to
discourage them from carrying out conversations regarding potential goat
adoptions;
Kicking small goats that wandered beyond the fence to a stone wall where
they fed on leaves and poison ivy;
Directing hired laborers to dump paint debris onto the shared stone wall
separating their properties;
Enlisting neighbors, including defendant Mason and others in the Town of
Redding, to participate in a hate campaign using social media to spread
false and malicious information about plaintiff and the goats;
Instigating publication of defamatory falsehoods about plaintiff and the
goats as published on online social media channels operated by
-- -—- - -- -- defendant Susan Winters to incite negati
and vity
malice_and discourage. ——
goat adoptions;
Clamoring by Carmody to encourage others to gather information for “her
case” against plaintiff and the goats;
Encouraging others to file false police complaints alleging one or more of
the goats was in the road when they were not “in the road” but rather were
grazing on leaves and poison ivy on the stone wall near the road.
On April 26, 2021, Carmody and Gibbon pursued several of plaintiff's
goats grazing along the stone wall separating their property from plaintiff's
property by blowing an air-horn loudly in their direction, causing the goats
to panic and flee from the stone wall; thereupon, Carmody and Gibbon
extended the middle fingers of their hands upright at plaintiff who was
standing nearby with a camera and they screamed repeatedly at her:
“Fuck you! We'll have you arrested!”
On September 30, 2020, plaintiff filed a complaint with the defendant
Redding Police Chief Mark O’Donnell requesting the arrest and
prosecution of Carmody and Gibbon for willful harassment and disorderly
conduct for the incident set forth hereinabove.
The Redding Police Department, per order of Chief Mark O’Donnell,
informed plaintiff it would take “no action” on her complaint.
On August 19, 2020, Carmody anonymously texted the following message
to plaintiff at 8:13 PM: “Are you actually aware of how much you are
abusing these goats? They are screaming and desperate. You should be
ashamed. But you will pay. With their lives. You are a fucking nightmare.”
(Emphasis added.)
Defendant Gibbon had previously informed plaintiff he would take
pleasure in having plaintiff's goats slaughtered for human consumption.
On August 26, 2020, plaintiff filed a complaint with the Redding Police
Department, requesting that it conduct an investigation to determine the
source of the text and to arrest such person for harassment; the Redding
Police Department, per defendant Chief O’Donnell, contacted plaintiff to
inform her that (a) It had been determined that Carmody was the source of
the harassing text; and (b) She uttered an apology to the inquiring
Redding police officer; and (c) The Redding Police Department would
“take no action” on plaintiff's complaint after confirming defendant
Carmody had texted the offensive message to plaintiff.
47.On or about April 2020, the State of Connecticut, per Gov. Ned Lamont, declared
a state of emergency in Connecticut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which
declaration remained in effect for more than a year; in consequence, public
activities in the Town of Redding came to a virtual pause; traffic diminished
significantly, and individuals were directed to wear masks and avoid social
contact with others within a range of less than six feet; these directives
significantly hindered plaintiff's ability to interact with potential goat adopters.
--- - 48.Qn April 30, 2020, some of plaintiff's goats crossed the road onto the Mason “
property. In coordination with Carmody, Gibbon and the Redding Police
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Department, Mason utilized an air-horn to create a loud and annoying noise by
which means he deliberately panicked the goats into uncontrolled stampede as,
he chased them in a wild frenzy galloping onto the road as if to escape a wild
predator and back onto plaintiff's property.
49.Mason’s intent - and the intent of Carmody, Gibbon and the Redding Police
Department and Chief O’Donnell - was to cause the goats to be killed or injured
in a collision with oncoming vehicles; it was understood by Mason, Carmody,
Gibbons, the Redding Police Department and Chief O’Donnell that should the
scheme go as planned and goats be killed or injured as a consequence of being
chased in a stampede across the road, plaintiff would be wrongfully charged with
animal cruelty, a misdemeanor, and Mason, Carmody, Gibbon and the Redding
Police Department would be held blameless.
50. In fact, the Redding police did arrest plaintiff on a warrant signed by the Hon.
Robert A. D’Andrea, whose current assignments included Burton v. Animal
N: lation, Inc.; days prior to the arrest, Redding Animal Control Officer Michael
DeLuca ordered plaintiff to not leave her residence until he returned at a date
and time he did not disclose; DeLuca later participated in the arrest of the plaintiff
on a bogus and false assertion that she impeded his search for a “severely
injured” goat when none of plaintiff's goats was injured during the incident,
having based the arrest on such charge entirely on false statements made by
Carmody and/or Gibbon and/or Mason.
51 The Redding Police Department, per Chief O’Donnell, made haste to issue a
press release announcing plaintiffs arrest and disperse it widely to the
Connecticut news media announcing plaintiff's arrest and accusing her of being
responsible for the “severe harm” to a goat that assertedly collided with a vehicle
in the incident; such statement was false and recklessly asserted to defame
plaintiff and interfere with her tireless efforts to relocate her goats to other safe
and secure homes; the Redding Police Department never recovered or identified
a goat in plaintiff's herd injured in such incident but allowed the reckless
falsehood to be asserted by Defendant DellaRocco, who was not present during
the incident. in an affidavit to support a subsequent application for a search and
seizure warrant and illegal seizure of plaintiff's goats and invasion of her home.
52. By the conduct as described hereinabove, and acting with a reckless intent to
kill, injure and/or maim plaintiff's goats, said defendants engaged in deliberate,
impermissible and unlawful animal cruelty and abuse.
53. Responding to a Freedom of Information request submitted by plaintiff, DOAG
staff attorney Carole Briggs later acknowledged that DOAG has no records of
any prior prosecution of an individual who witnessed a person causing goats to
stampede in a frenzy onto a public road by panicking them by blowing repeatedly
on an air horn, nor in which the air-horn blower was not prosecuted.
54. On November 30, 2020, plaintiff filed a complaint with defendant Redding Police
Chief O'Donnell requesting the arrest and prosecution of defendants Carmody,
Gibbon and Mason, with regard to the April 30, 2021 incident, as set forth
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hereinabove, for wanton animal cruelty, harassment and related offenses;
plaintiff offered to provide photographs and other materials which document the
allegations and which were never requested; to date, upon information and
belief, no action has been taken on such complaint other than a reported referral
to the state’s attorney’s office for unknown disposition.
55.On December 2, 2020, plaintiff delivered an identical complaint to defendant
Bryan Hurlburt, Commissioner, Department of Agriculture, in which she
demanded an investigation of the alleged acts of deliberate and wanton animal
cruelty as set forth in the complaint identified hereinabove and offered to provide
photographs and other documents material to the complaint, which were never
requested.
56. Later on December 2, 2020, DOAG staff attorney Carole Briggs emailed plaintiff
as follows: “Dear Ms. Burton: this will confirm receipt of your communication. The
department takes seriously all allegations of animal cruelty.” (Emphasis
added.)
57. DOAG assigned investigation of the complaint to defendant DellaRocco.
58. Defendant DellaRocco had been exposed by an article published in the Hartford
Courant and elsewhere as an individual who had been forced to resign as coach
of the Old Saybrook High School girls’ soccer team because of publicity
surrounding his practice of viewing depictions of child pornography on the
Internet during work hours; in proceedings in the Superior Court on March 30,
2021 in the case of State of Connecticut ex rel. Jeremiah Dunn v. 65 Goats et
al., HHD-CV-21-6139702-S (“Dunn v. 65 Goats”), defendant DellaRocco
disputed the charge but could not explain why the Hartford Courant reported as it
did regarding his conduct.
59. Plaintiff related the facts of the April 30, 2020 incident to defendant DellaRocco
when he later made an unannounced visit to her property in the company of two
Redding Police Department officers in December 2020, claiming he had driven
nearly two hours from his home in Chester, Connecticut, that morning to meet
with plaintiff to investigate her complaint to defendant Hurlburt; defendant
DellaRocco’s explanation for his unannounced visit to plaintiff's property in the
company of two Redding police officers to investigate her complaint, which
raised issues as to Redding Police Department officers’ dereliction of duty, was
not credible.
60. While at plaintiff's property, defendant DellaRocco stated that if plaintiff's recital
of the facts of the April 30, 2020 incident was true and accurate, the Redding
Police Department lacked probable cause to arrest plaintiff; defendant
DellaRocco confirmed his statement in an email to plaintiff and plaintiff requested
that he update her as to his progress in his investigation of her complaint.
61. Defendant DellaRocco did not update plaintiff on the status of his investigation of
her complaint.
-
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62. However, appearing in the Superior Court as a DOAG witness in Dunn v. 65
Goats on March 30, 2021, DellaRocco testified that the plaintiff's complaint to
defendant Hurlburt was “unfounded.”
63. Although plaintiff had filed a request for issuance of a subpoena directing
defendant DellaRocco to produce all documents and records concerning his role
in the case Dunn v. 65 Goats (significantly, defendant DellaRocco provided the
affidavit to support his applicant for warrant to search plaintiff's property and
seize her goats), Judge David Sheridan of the Superior Court denied the request
on grounds that defendant DellaRocco’s counsel, Deputy Assistant Attorney
General Matthew Levine, had represented to the Court that Mr. DellaRocco
would produce the documents requested by plaintiff and therefore plaintiff would
not need a subpoena to assure Mr. DellaRocco’s production on records sought
by plaintiff for her use in questioning him at the hearing.
64. However, at hearing on March 30, 2021, Mr. DellaRocco testified that he was
unaware of any subpoena and he did not produce the records of the
investigation of plaintiffs complaint nor other records plaintiff had sought in her
subpoena request which were material to her examination of defendant
DellaRocco..
65. On May 14, 2021, plaintiff obtained a copy of the only record released by DOAG
per Carole Briggs, its staff attorney, of defendant DellaRocco’s “investigation” of
her complaint, revealing that his superior, Jeremiah Dunn, DOAG chief animal
control officer, deemed plaintiff's complaint was “unfounded” and dismissed it as
of December 17, 2020 on the grounds that defendant DellaRocco stated that the
number used by Carmody to text her harassing message to plaintiff could not be
traced to Carmody — a falsehood concocted deliberately by defendant
DellaRocco and contradicted by the Redding Police Department, which identified
Carmody’s phone as the one used to send the offensive text message and her
admission to the Redding Police Department admitting sending it and stating that
she regretted sending it. A copy of the report with Ms. Briggs’ cover email (“Here
is the investigation report. It is the only record in the file.”) is attached hereto as
Exhibit A.
66. On May 18, 2021, plaintiff emailed a request to Mr. Dunn requesting that the
investigation of her complaint to Commissioner Hurlburt be reopened. A copy of
the email is attached hereto as Exhibit B.
67. On May 19, 2021, plaintiff emailed a corrected request to Mr. Dunn. A copy of
the email is attached hereto as Exhibit C.
68. Mr. Dunn did not respond to plaintiff's requests that the “investigation” be
reopened.;. indeed, neither he nor Commissioner Hurlburt has responded to any
of the numerous communications plaintiff has sent to them in this matter despite
her urgent requests for a response.
69.On May 18, 2021, Ms. Briggs emailed to plaintiff as follows: Dear Ms. Burton,
_Thank you for your email. This investigation is closed.” (Attached hereto as_
Exhibit D)
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70. On or about February 3, 2021, defendant DellaRocco secreted himself on the
Carmody-Gibbons property in an unheated garage space with Carmody's
permission and encouragement to conduct a surveillance of plaintiff and her
property. ~
71.There had recently been a major blizzard and successive heavy winter
snowstorms and the ground was covered in deep snow, impeding his visibility
from his secretive vantage point.
72. Defendant DellaRocco later testified in court that plaintiff appeared “frail” and
“fatigued” and that he felt sorry for her.
73. Thereafter, defendant DellaRocco, in consultation with Mr. Dunn, allegedly
ordered a four-day continuous surveillance of plaintiff and her property in
collaboration with the defendant Redding Police Department to occur in March.
74.On March 9, 2021, defendant DellaRocco presented an affidavit to Judge
D’Andrea, co-signed by DOAG animal control officer Tanya Wescovich, in which
he sought an order to search plaintiff's property and seize all her goats.
75. Such affidavit was replete with knowingly false statements, expressions of
misogyny, reliance on statements of others who possess malicious motives and
lack credibility, including defendant Carmody, who are known to be habitual
prevaricators and dishonest by nature and consumed by malice and evidencing
ignorance of plaintiff, the goats, plaintiff's care and treatment of the goats and
pertinent facts such as to render the affidavit an abuse of the police power and
defective, failing to set forth legally sufficient and accurate facts to satisfy due
process requirements for issuance of a search and seizure warrant.
76. The search and seizure affidavit presents no lawful or factual cause for the
requested invasion of plaintiff's private property and seizure of plaintiff's entire
herd of goats.
77.Nevertheless, Judge D'Andrea issued the requested warrant on March 9, 2021,
purporting to authorize the immediate seizure of 65 goats from plaintiff's property
and invade her home.
78. Plaintiff had previously vacated her home of 35 years and was no longer living in
Redding due to her fears and anxiety, inter alia, of the defendants and the tactics
they were unscrupulously employing to harass her and interfere with the Mothers
Milk Project.
79. The affidavit sets forth no legitimate cause whatsoever for a search of plaintiff's
home; yet the warrant issued by Judge D’Andrea purports to authorize a search
of plaintiff's home, an unprecedented prospective invasion at the heart of Fourth
Amendment privacy protection from invasion by the state.
80. On March 10, 2021, Defendant DellaRocco commenced an unannounced
operation on plaintiff's property by breaking apart her security gate in her
absence in the company of many DOAG agents and members of the Redding
Police Department and Redding First Selectman Julia Pemberton during which
_— plaintiff was. ordered by him shortly after her appearance
on the property not to
communicate with anyone involved in the search-and-seizure operation.
12
81.At the time of the March 10, 2021 operation, defendants DOAG and the Town of
Redding and defendant Pemberton were all well aware of the following:
A. That plaintiff had made arrangements to transfer 10 female goats and two
bucklings on the previous two weekends to SBF Animal Rescue, Inc., (an
appointment which had to be postponed because of adverse winter weather
conditions — heavy accumulations of snow and ice) to Stoney Brook Farm
Animal Rescue, Inc. (“SBF Animal Rescue, Inc.”), an animal rescue sanctuary’
of good repute which is a registered 501(c)(3) charity under the operation and
direction of its president, Rosa Buonomo, and is located at 96 Swimming Hola
Road in Harwinton, Connecticut and that the twelve goats’ transfer to SBF
Animal Rescue, Inc. was imminent; and
That SBF Animal Rescue, Inc. had agreed to take in for adoption all of
plaintiff's remaining goats shortly thereafter, and
That Goats of Anarchy, Inc., which operates a respected goat rescue
sanctuary in New Jersey and which is part of a large and reputable goat-
adoption network, had also committed to adopting as many of plaintiff's goats
as she had available for adoption; and
That others in the Redding community had made bona fide requests to adopt
plaintiffs goats; and
That the Town of Redding, per its town counsel, Steven Stafstrom, Esq., had
proposed to plaintiff on March 9, 2021 — the very day defendant DellaRocco
applied to Judge D’Andrea for a warrant to seize plaintiff's goats and thereby
subject the State of Connecticut and the Town of Redding to significant costs
and commitment of significant resources of time, apart from significant legal
liabilities - that the Town of Redding would assist financially and in other ways
to transfer plaintiff's goats to SBF Animal Rescue, Inc. on condition that
plaintiff drop two lawsuits pending against the Town of Redding concerning
the goats, a step plaintiff was fully prepared to take, and which proposal Mr.
Stafstrom assured he would pursue forthwith with the Board of Selectmen of
the Town of Redding with his strong recommendation that the Board enter
into such a commitment; and
That plaintiff was subject to an order issued by Hon. Barbara Bellis, assigned
to the Complex Litigation Docket, to appear for a remote hearing on March
10, 2021 at 9 AM in the two cases she had brought involving her goats; and
That plaintiffs goats were in good health, were well-nourished, had access to
plentiful clean water, were appropriately sheltered, had access to spacious
exercise and grazing areas, received veterinary care when and where
appropriate and were loved and well cared for by plaintiff, their devoted
caretaker; and
That plaintiffs goats are entitled to special protection as participants in and
contributors to the Mothers Milk Project, a pro bono public-interest initiative
- devoted to public health and education; and.
13
I That DOAG lacked probable or any other cause to search plaintiff's property
and seize her goats.
82. Beginning prior to 8 AM on March 10, 2021, defendant DellaRocco and other
defendant DOAG agents and members of the defendant Redding Police
Department converged unannounced on plaintiff's property and some or all of
them unlawfully removed items of plaintiff's personal property inside and outside
her home including personal items of great value which are irreplaceable, and
committed the following acts of deliberate animal cruelty:
A They forcibly removed an estimated 65 goats belonging to plaintiff without
her knowledge or acquiescence and without proper legal cause based on
a search and seizure warrant fraudulently secured by Defendant
DellaRocco; and
The forcible removal subjected the goats, who were accustomed to a
loving home that provided security, peace, comfort and all their needs, to
a time of terror, high anxiety and stress, including two-hour high-speed
travel in crowded, unsafe conditions, all of which contribute to ill health;
In their ignorance and disinterest, defendant DellaRocco and his DOAC
accomplices wilfully separated kid goats from their lactating mothers,
thereby depriving them of all the benefits nature intended them to receive
as they had received under plaintiff's care for their entire lives and critical
nurturing to enhance their well-being and good health; and
In their ignorance and wilful disinterest, defendant DellaRocco and his
accomplices denied plaintiff's ability to communicate vital facts of each
goat’s medical and social history to them to enable them to provide
necessary medical and therapeutic care to them during their illegal seizure
from their home; and
In their ignorance and wilful disinterest, DellaRocco and his accomplices
repeatedly denied and ignored plaintiff's requests that she provide them
with medications prescribed by a licensed veterinarian as necessary and
critical to their treatments and good health and well-being, thereby
depriving the goats of the good and devoted care they had been receiving
from plaintiff; and
In their ignorance and wilful disinterest, DellaRocco and his accomplices
refused to communicate with plaintiff so as to discover the true facts as to
their medical and physical care, ongoing upgrades to the property and
shelters and the provisional, temporary nature of many of the feeding and
housing arrangements due to concessions to the weather, namely, the
unavoidable forced delay in altering and/or upgrading some of these
arrangements until the heavy snow and ice cover receded and
temperatures warmed to enable such work to be carried out efficiently.
83. Upon information and belief, plaintiffs goats have been confined in over-
crowded conditions
ONIONS to simall stalls at the Large Animal facility operated by DOAG __
14
in Niantic, Connecticut, where they have been subject to the following acts of
wilful and deliberate abuse and cruelty to animals:
A They have been held captive in small and overcrowded stalls apparently
lacking in water and hay supply; and
B At least one of plaintiff's goats has died unattended while in state custody;
the death apparently occurred 28 days following her seizure by DOAG at
which time she was in good health; and
According to testimony of DOAG witness Tanya Wescovich, five of
plaintiffs goats have given birth to underweight kids, a circumstance
scientifically linked to their stressful mistreatment by DOAG and which will
likely deprive them of good health in the future; and
Goat kids still in need of nursing for their good health and well-being and
in need of their mothers’ presence for nurturing have been wilfully
separated from their mothers and thereby deprived of these necessities
which they enjoyed without interruption or interference at their Redding;
and
The goats have been illegally photographed offered for sale and/or
adoption in an apparent “goat black market” operated by DOAG in
knowing violation of law and which has been allowed to corrupt the “open
auction” procedure set forth in Conn. Gen. Stat. §29-329a(i), thereby
subjecting plaintiff's goats to auction and/or sale and consequent acts of
uncontrolled barbarism, terror and deliberate animal abuse and cruelty
Preview
UWY-CV-21-5028294-S NANCY BURTON SUPERIOR COURT JUDICIAL DISTRICT Vv. OF WATERBURY DAVID PHILIP MASON ELINORE CARMODY DENNIS GIBBON SUSAN WINTERS JULIA PEMBERTON, FIRST SELECTMAN TOWN OF REDDING, CONNECTICUT TOWN OF REDDING, REDDING CT, MARK O’DONNELL, CHIEF, POLICE DEPARTMENT OF REDDING, CONNECTICUT (Individually and in His Official Capacity) CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BRYAN HURLBURT, COMMISSIONER, CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (Individually and in His Official Capacity CHARLES DELLAROCCO, (Individually And in His Official Capacity as Animal Control Officer of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture) BUILDING DEPARTMENT, TOWN OF REDDING, CONNECTICUT HEALTH DEPARTMENT, TOWN OF REDDING, CONNECTICUT POLICE DEPT., TOWN OF REDDING CT JANUARY 15, 2022 THIRD AMENDED COMPLAINT 1. Plaintiff Nancy Burton has resided for 35 years at 147 Cross Highway in Redding, Connecticut. 2. Plaintiff is a former reporter for The Associated Press, an author and a book editor; and for some 20 years, she maintained a successful practice of primarily pro bono public-interest law in Connecticut in the area of environmental law. 3. During her residency in the Town of Redding, plaintiff has contributed in many ways to the preservation and betterment of the town in a host of ways, all on a pro bono publico basis, including playing a key role in the permanent preservation of three large parcels of pastureland of outstanding scenic value along Cross Highway (which had been actively proposed for subdivision and ~ --housing development); initiating the successful campaign to-designate Cross Highway a “scenic road”; leading a petition drive to the Board of Selectmen to 1 create a “Mark Twain Historic District” to include the “Stormfield Estate” to which the celebrated author retired and where he died in 1910 and other nearby properties of unique scenic and historic value which had been occupied by Mark Twain’s biographer Albert Bigelow Paine and Mark Twain's friend Dan Beard (author, illustrator and co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America), and others, which properties, or most of them including Stormfield, were under actual threat of subdivision development (the Redding First Selectman at the time, Mary Anne Guitar, rejected the petition, but a Superior Court judge, Hon. William Sullivan, later to become Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, upheld the petition in a lawsuit brought by plaintiff, Nancy Burton v. Mary Anne Guitar. Among other successful legal endeavors involving Redding, plaintiff achieved an unprecedented victory for a Redding property owner after the Redding Health Department sought to hold her in contempt after the Connecticut Department of, Transportation (“DOT”) deliberately excavated too close to her septic system in order to bring about condemnation of her property to benefit an adjoining corporate development scheme; in the course of the proceedings, DOT abandoned its effort to obtain her property by eminent domain. In 1999, plaintiff obtained a temporary restraining order as attorney on behalf of environmental organizations which kept Millstone Unit 2 shut down for a period of 10 days during the peak period of indigenous Niantic River winter flounder larvae migration to Niantic Bay as a step to protect the subspecies of fish from collapse and extirpation due to the powerful suction effect of the plant’s seawater intakes; this victory was also unprecedented. Plaintiff was nominated by the Connecticut Green Party to be its candidate for the Office of Attorney General after she had run for the office of state representative; during the latter campaign members of the Redding Zoning Commission, including its chairman, illegally took down plaintiff's campaign signs with the slogan “Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Government”; Hon. Douglas Mintz of the Connecticut Superior Court ruled in plaintiff's favor in a suit she brought to restore the campaign signs. Beginning on or about 2008, plaintiff with others initiated the Mothers Milk Project (www. MothersMilkProject.org) to collect samples of goat and human milk for independent laboratory analysis for the presence of radioisotopes routinely released into the environment by the Millstone and Indian Point nuclear power plants; the project was initiated after plaintiff became of aware of state government records that revealed that Katie the Goat, who resided five miles downwind of Millstone in Waterford, Connecticut, produced milk with excessively high levels of inter alia strontium-90 and strontium-89, both deadly carcinogens, particularly harmful to women, children and human embryos and fetuses. Plaintiff adopted Katie the Goat and brought her to live at her Redding home, where plaintiff continued to test Katie’s milk, and that of her progeny, for the — —presence of radioisotopes; various samples revealed the presence of strontium-__ _ — 90 and strontium-89 in the milk produced by Katie the Goat while she grazed in 2 Redding, as reported in detail in an article titled “The nuclear safety debate hits home’ published in the Connecticut Post. Stamford Advocate and Danbury News-Times newspapers on July 19, 2011, including concentrations of deadly strontium-89 of 2.1 picocuries per liter and .4 picocuries per liter. Other sampling by the Mothers Milk Project revealed a concentration of 3.3 picocuries per liter of strontium-89 in human breast milk collected in 2009 on Orange County, New York, in the Hudson River Valley downwind of Indian Point and 5 picocuries per liter of strontium-89 in milk collected from a goat grazing in Dutchess County, New York, downwind of Indian Point. 10. Plaintiff reported this information to health and environmental authorities in Connecticut, who took no action although required to undertake such environmental sampling of goat milk for the presence of radioisotopes dispersed by nuclear power plants pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §22a-135(a)(4). 11. The State of Connecticut per its Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (“DEEP”) and Department of Agriculture (“DOAG”) has continuously and repeatedly refused to do so in violation of the law. 12. The failure of the State of Connecticut to monitor milk taken from goats grazing downwind of Millstone and Indian Point robs the public — particularly mothers and their embryos, fetuses and young children — of governmental protection from a known health hazard of consequence and shields the nuclear industry from government surveillance of the true public health dangers and consequences of routine, let alone emergency, operations of Millstone and Indian Point. 13. Earlier sampling of milk collected by DEEP from goats grazing within two miles of Millstone have revealed dangerous concentrations of radioisotopes, including strontium-90 and strontium-89. 14. Strontium-90 has a half-life of about 30 years, meaning that it takes a period of 30 years before half the radioactivity in the sample has decayed. 15. Strontium-89, in contrast, is a reliable indicator of the presence of nuclear power plant releases of radioactivity into the environment during routine operations; it has a half-life of approximately 50 days, meaning that if strontium-89 is detected in a goat milk sample, the strontium-89 was released from a nuclear fission event recently and not far away because otherwise it would evade detection and measurement. 16. The Mothers Milk Project is dedicated to inter alia development of a scientific database to monitor and track dispersal of radioactivity routinely released by Millstone and Indian Point and to correlate such information with a database of incidences of cancer, diseases of the immune system, premature deaths, birth defects, genetic mutations, miscarriages and other serious and often fatal outcomes of human and animal exposure to radioactivity routinely released by Millstone and Indian Point in order to motivate the State of Connecticut to take appropriate action to eliminate such routine releases of radioactivity to the air. —- ----- 17.At the. same.time, Millstone routinely releases radioactive waste materials into ~ the Long Island Sound and the public beach zones surrounding Millstone in East 3 Lyme (including Niantic) and Waterford. Including Hole-in-the-Wall Beach and Pleasure Beach; it is well known in such communities that clusters of brain cancer incidences, birth defects, breast cancer, lung cancer, miscarriages and many other fatal diseases occur in populations residing in the vicinity of Millstone and such popular recreation areas. 18. The State of Connecticut actively impedes and frustrates public awareness of Millstone’s routine releases of radioactive and toxic chemical materials into the Long Island Sound at such location. 19. Indeed, in a recent decision of the Connecticut Supreme Court, officially released on January 21, 2021, the state’s highest court misled the public about such radioactive releases by characterizing them as “alleged” releases when, e.g., the record in the case is replete with data of Millstone’s actual and admitted releases of radioactive materials to the Long Island Sound via its “quarry cut,” including a report in evidence submitted to the federal government by Millstone’s owners and operators that during a recent five-year period Millstone releases 1.74 million gallons (145 millocuries) of fission and activation products (“radwaste’”) to the Long Island Sound, a figure shortly to be increased by 9.1% in a power “uprate.” Other reports submitted by Millstone’s owners and operators admitting catching a fish in Niantic Bay (an estuary of the Long Island Sound) contaminated with cesium-137, a carcinogen the Millstone personnel admitted was released during routine Millstone operations. Medical experts have linked the radioactive contamination of Niantic Bay by Millstone routine operations to the near-fatal medical condition of a boy born to a mother who routinely swam in Niantic Bay during her pregnancy, unaware of its radioactive contamination. See plaintiff's Motion for Reconsideration En Banc dated February 8, 2021, as filed in Nancy Burton v. Regina McCarthy, SC 20466, pages 6-7. 20. Katie the Goat was diagnosed with terminal thoracic cancer in 2012; plaintiff took Katie, who had become a goat celebrity championing an anti-nuclear platform at tallies across the state and on a farewell tour to the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, on March 11, 2012, the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. 21. Prior to such tour, plaintiff had communicated an invitation to the then-First Family to adopt Katie’s daughter, Dana Blue-Eyes, as a White House pet as well as the First Family's personal radiation monitor. 22. Then-First Lady Michelle Obama responded to the invitation through her press office as follows on March 9, 2012 at 1:31 PM: “Thank you for your interest in the First Family. Your offer is extremely generous and seems like a fantastic opportunity, it is truly appreciated. Unfortunately, we are unable to satisfy your request. We apologize that we could not be more helpful. Again thank you so much for such a kind gesture. We wish you well in the future.” 23. Katie died in 2012, but plaintiff continues to test the milk produced by her ~ ~~ - _progeny residing at her Ri ing address; some samples have tested positively, __ _ for strontium-90 and strontium-89. 24.In September 2017, the Redding Zoning Commission issued a cease and desist order directing plaintiff to reduce the number of goats on her property to no more than nine within ten days of said order; there was no manner available within which plaintiff could so reduce the herd other than by subjecting them to the brutality and cruelty of slaughter. 25. Plaintiff is opposed to the slaughter of innocent animals on grounds of her moral and religious convictions. 26. Therefore, since issuance of said order on, and before issuance of said order, plaintiff has endeavored conscientiously and in good faith to reduce the goat herd by locating individuals and rescue sanctuaries interested in adopting such goats and providing them with good care, nutrition and shelter for the duration of their natural lives. 27.\n addition, as is expressly allowed by law, plaintiff filed a land management plan with the Redding Zoning Commission by which she proposed to reduce the herd by relocating most of the goats to good homes with the help of an animal rescue organization, Animal Nation, Inc., which agreed in a binding contract to find good homes for all of plaintiff's goats except nine which she intended to keep without protest by the Zoning Commission. 28. Animal Nation, Inc. breached the contract before fulfilling its obligations; the plaintiff has brought suit to enforce compliance with the contract, which suit is pending. Nancy Burton v. Animal Nation, Inc., DBD-CV-19-5015207-S. 29.Responding to an anonymous complaint, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture ("DOAG) assigned one of its animal control officers to investigate plaintiff's goats and their care and living conditions in 2017. 30. At the conclusion of the investigation, which included two visits personally supervised by Mary Lis, DVM, then-state veterinarian, said DOAG animal control officers concluded in a written report dated June 15, 2018: “At the time of this investigation, all goats on the property appear to be in good condition with food and water available.” 31.In the meantime, Animal Nation, Inc. and its staff and volunteers were successful in relocating between 30 and 40 goats to what it represented were “good homes.” 32. However, in March 2018, Animal Nation, Inc. breached the contract with plaintiff and refused to complete the performance of activities it committed itself to completing in the contract, including locating and moving more goats to good homes, assisting in securing fencing, repairing and upgrading shelters and providing veterinarian care as appropriate and it remains obligated to do so. 33. Further, since on and before September 2017, plaintiff has by other means endeavored conscientiously to reduce the goat herd, frequently by inviting potential adopters to visit the property to observe the goats. 34. Further, plaintiff attempted to enlist the support and assistance of the Town of ———-- ~- Redding in_a variety of ways, including but.not limited to the following: By requesting that the Board of Selectmen convene a public meeting at which plaintiff would make a presentation about the goats, familiarize the community with the Mothers Milk Project and encourage town residents to consider adopting goats; First Selectman Julia Pemberton did not respond to the request; and By requesting that the Board of Selectmen permit plaintiff to tack an attractive flyer to the Town Hall community bulletin board by way of informing the community and requesting its support for plaintiff's “Good Homes for Goats” appeal; First Selectman Pemberton did not respond to the request; and By presenting a sample of freshly-collected milk from one of her goats to First Selectman Pemberton with a request that she forward the sample to the DEEP to analyze it for the presence of radioisotopes; without notice to plaintiff, First Selectman Pemberton allowed the sample of goat milk to be discarded rather than analyzed without notifying plaintiff; and By directing correspondence to science teachers at the Redding high school and middle school requesting that they consider adopting some of. plaintiffs goats and incorporate them into the science curriculum; the teachers did not respond. 35. Defendant David Philip Mason (“Mason”) resides at 146 Cross Highway, Redding, Connecticut, across the street from the plaintiff. Once a practicing attorney in New York City, he was ordered suspended from the practice of law by order of the Appellate Division of the State of New York, November 20, 2013; upon information and belief, said order remains in effect. 36. Defendant Elinore Carmody (“Carmody”) and her husband, Dennis Gibbon (“Gibbon”), reside at 135 Cross Highway adjacent to plaintiff. 37. Defendant Susan Winters (“Winters”) resides at 50 Seventy Acres Road in Redding, Connecticut; with no apparent education, training or professional credentials in professional journalism, she operates a scurrilous online gossip sheet called “hellonewsct.com” focusing on Redding; since the closure of the Redding Pilot, a weekly newspaper with a large readership in Redding, the Redding community has been deprived of a responsible source for news focusing on Redding. 38. Defendant Julia Pemberton has served and continues to serve as First Selectman of the Town of Redding during the period of time pertinent to this Amended Complaint; she has actively fed a frenzy of manufactured goat hysteria in the community through social media and other means without ever having discussed any issues of concern with plaintiff about her goats and without meeting the goats or making any effort to become informed and aware of the goats’ natural behavior or contribution to the Mothers Milk Project. 39. Defendant Police Department of the Town of Redding and certain of its a - personnel have given the Town of Redding negative notoriety in the recent past _ — when inter alia the then-chief of police directed Redding police officers not to 6 rescue a Redding resident in the act of hanging himself in suicidal despair ( misdeed by the Redding police for which the Town of Redding paid the deceased man’s surviving infant son, through representatives, a large monetary settlement); and the Redding Police Department pronounced a Black lawyer the victim of a suicide without an investigation when he was found with a bullet wound to the back of his head and footprints on his attire covering his back (the man’s family cried foul and the Black Lives Matter movement has taken up the cause of demanding a complete investigation). 40. Defendant Mark O’Donnell at all times pertinent to this Amended Complaint has served as Chief of the Redding Police Department. 41.Defendant Bryan Hurlburt is Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture(‘DOAG”) and responsible for the agency’s lawful discharge of its statutory duties and the lawful conduct of the DOAG’s staff and its agents and representatives 42. Defendant Charles DellaRocco, at all times pertinent to the Amended Complaint, has served as a DOAG animal control officer. 43. Defendant Building Department of the Town of Redding is the municipal agency charged with aspects of enforcement of the state building code. 44. Defendant Health Department of the Town of Redding is the municipal agency charged with aspects of enforcement of the state Public Health Code. 45. Defendants Carmody and Winters have widely and publicly circulated and published false and defamatory screeds targeting plaintiff, accusing her falsely inter alia of “using the law to break the law’; although plaintiff timely demanded retraction of the false and offensive publications, neither Carmody nor Winters complied. 46. Prior to the Zoning Commission's issuance of the cease and desist order, said Mason, Carmody, Gibbons and others took to harassing plaintiff and interfering with her ability to carry out her objective to rehome most of her goats in the following ways, among others: a. Screaming at plaintiff's visitors as they stood on her property to discourage them from carrying out conversations regarding potential goat adoptions; Kicking small goats that wandered beyond the fence to a stone wall where they fed on leaves and poison ivy; Directing hired laborers to dump paint debris onto the shared stone wall separating their properties; Enlisting neighbors, including defendant Mason and others in the Town of Redding, to participate in a hate campaign using social media to spread false and malicious information about plaintiff and the goats; Instigating publication of defamatory falsehoods about plaintiff and the goats as published on online social media channels operated by -- -—- - -- -- defendant Susan Winters to incite negati and vity malice_and discourage. —— goat adoptions; Clamoring by Carmody to encourage others to gather information for “her case” against plaintiff and the goats; Encouraging others to file false police complaints alleging one or more of the goats was in the road when they were not “in the road” but rather were grazing on leaves and poison ivy on the stone wall near the road. On April 26, 2021, Carmody and Gibbon pursued several of plaintiff's goats grazing along the stone wall separating their property from plaintiff's property by blowing an air-horn loudly in their direction, causing the goats to panic and flee from the stone wall; thereupon, Carmody and Gibbon extended the middle fingers of their hands upright at plaintiff who was standing nearby with a camera and they screamed repeatedly at her: “Fuck you! We'll have you arrested!” On September 30, 2020, plaintiff filed a complaint with the defendant Redding Police Chief Mark O’Donnell requesting the arrest and prosecution of Carmody and Gibbon for willful harassment and disorderly conduct for the incident set forth hereinabove. The Redding Police Department, per order of Chief Mark O’Donnell, informed plaintiff it would take “no action” on her complaint. On August 19, 2020, Carmody anonymously texted the following message to plaintiff at 8:13 PM: “Are you actually aware of how much you are abusing these goats? They are screaming and desperate. You should be ashamed. But you will pay. With their lives. You are a fucking nightmare.” (Emphasis added.) Defendant Gibbon had previously informed plaintiff he would take pleasure in having plaintiff's goats slaughtered for human consumption. On August 26, 2020, plaintiff filed a complaint with the Redding Police Department, requesting that it conduct an investigation to determine the source of the text and to arrest such person for harassment; the Redding Police Department, per defendant Chief O’Donnell, contacted plaintiff to inform her that (a) It had been determined that Carmody was the source of the harassing text; and (b) She uttered an apology to the inquiring Redding police officer; and (c) The Redding Police Department would “take no action” on plaintiff's complaint after confirming defendant Carmody had texted the offensive message to plaintiff. 47.On or about April 2020, the State of Connecticut, per Gov. Ned Lamont, declared a state of emergency in Connecticut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which declaration remained in effect for more than a year; in consequence, public activities in the Town of Redding came to a virtual pause; traffic diminished significantly, and individuals were directed to wear masks and avoid social contact with others within a range of less than six feet; these directives significantly hindered plaintiff's ability to interact with potential goat adopters. --- - 48.Qn April 30, 2020, some of plaintiff's goats crossed the road onto the Mason “ property. In coordination with Carmody, Gibbon and the Redding Police 8 Department, Mason utilized an air-horn to create a loud and annoying noise by which means he deliberately panicked the goats into uncontrolled stampede as, he chased them in a wild frenzy galloping onto the road as if to escape a wild predator and back onto plaintiff's property. 49.Mason’s intent - and the intent of Carmody, Gibbon and the Redding Police Department and Chief O’Donnell - was to cause the goats to be killed or injured in a collision with oncoming vehicles; it was understood by Mason, Carmody, Gibbons, the Redding Police Department and Chief O’Donnell that should the scheme go as planned and goats be killed or injured as a consequence of being chased in a stampede across the road, plaintiff would be wrongfully charged with animal cruelty, a misdemeanor, and Mason, Carmody, Gibbon and the Redding Police Department would be held blameless. 50. In fact, the Redding police did arrest plaintiff on a warrant signed by the Hon. Robert A. D’Andrea, whose current assignments included Burton v. Animal N: lation, Inc.; days prior to the arrest, Redding Animal Control Officer Michael DeLuca ordered plaintiff to not leave her residence until he returned at a date and time he did not disclose; DeLuca later participated in the arrest of the plaintiff on a bogus and false assertion that she impeded his search for a “severely injured” goat when none of plaintiff's goats was injured during the incident, having based the arrest on such charge entirely on false statements made by Carmody and/or Gibbon and/or Mason. 51 The Redding Police Department, per Chief O’Donnell, made haste to issue a press release announcing plaintiffs arrest and disperse it widely to the Connecticut news media announcing plaintiff's arrest and accusing her of being responsible for the “severe harm” to a goat that assertedly collided with a vehicle in the incident; such statement was false and recklessly asserted to defame plaintiff and interfere with her tireless efforts to relocate her goats to other safe and secure homes; the Redding Police Department never recovered or identified a goat in plaintiff's herd injured in such incident but allowed the reckless falsehood to be asserted by Defendant DellaRocco, who was not present during the incident. in an affidavit to support a subsequent application for a search and seizure warrant and illegal seizure of plaintiff's goats and invasion of her home. 52. By the conduct as described hereinabove, and acting with a reckless intent to kill, injure and/or maim plaintiff's goats, said defendants engaged in deliberate, impermissible and unlawful animal cruelty and abuse. 53. Responding to a Freedom of Information request submitted by plaintiff, DOAG staff attorney Carole Briggs later acknowledged that DOAG has no records of any prior prosecution of an individual who witnessed a person causing goats to stampede in a frenzy onto a public road by panicking them by blowing repeatedly on an air horn, nor in which the air-horn blower was not prosecuted. 54. On November 30, 2020, plaintiff filed a complaint with defendant Redding Police Chief O'Donnell requesting the arrest and prosecution of defendants Carmody, Gibbon and Mason, with regard to the April 30, 2021 incident, as set forth 9 hereinabove, for wanton animal cruelty, harassment and related offenses; plaintiff offered to provide photographs and other materials which document the allegations and which were never requested; to date, upon information and belief, no action has been taken on such complaint other than a reported referral to the state’s attorney’s office for unknown disposition. 55.On December 2, 2020, plaintiff delivered an identical complaint to defendant Bryan Hurlburt, Commissioner, Department of Agriculture, in which she demanded an investigation of the alleged acts of deliberate and wanton animal cruelty as set forth in the complaint identified hereinabove and offered to provide photographs and other documents material to the complaint, which were never requested. 56. Later on December 2, 2020, DOAG staff attorney Carole Briggs emailed plaintiff as follows: “Dear Ms. Burton: this will confirm receipt of your communication. The department takes seriously all allegations of animal cruelty.” (Emphasis added.) 57. DOAG assigned investigation of the complaint to defendant DellaRocco. 58. Defendant DellaRocco had been exposed by an article published in the Hartford Courant and elsewhere as an individual who had been forced to resign as coach of the Old Saybrook High School girls’ soccer team because of publicity surrounding his practice of viewing depictions of child pornography on the Internet during work hours; in proceedings in the Superior Court on March 30, 2021 in the case of State of Connecticut ex rel. Jeremiah Dunn v. 65 Goats et al., HHD-CV-21-6139702-S (“Dunn v. 65 Goats”), defendant DellaRocco disputed the charge but could not explain why the Hartford Courant reported as it did regarding his conduct. 59. Plaintiff related the facts of the April 30, 2020 incident to defendant DellaRocco when he later made an unannounced visit to her property in the company of two Redding Police Department officers in December 2020, claiming he had driven nearly two hours from his home in Chester, Connecticut, that morning to meet with plaintiff to investigate her complaint to defendant Hurlburt; defendant DellaRocco’s explanation for his unannounced visit to plaintiff's property in the company of two Redding police officers to investigate her complaint, which raised issues as to Redding Police Department officers’ dereliction of duty, was not credible. 60. While at plaintiff's property, defendant DellaRocco stated that if plaintiff's recital of the facts of the April 30, 2020 incident was true and accurate, the Redding Police Department lacked probable cause to arrest plaintiff; defendant DellaRocco confirmed his statement in an email to plaintiff and plaintiff requested that he update her as to his progress in his investigation of her complaint. 61. Defendant DellaRocco did not update plaintiff on the status of his investigation of her complaint. - 10 62. However, appearing in the Superior Court as a DOAG witness in Dunn v. 65 Goats on March 30, 2021, DellaRocco testified that the plaintiff's complaint to defendant Hurlburt was “unfounded.” 63. Although plaintiff had filed a request for issuance of a subpoena directing defendant DellaRocco to produce all documents and records concerning his role in the case Dunn v. 65 Goats (significantly, defendant DellaRocco provided the affidavit to support his applicant for warrant to search plaintiff's property and seize her goats), Judge David Sheridan of the Superior Court denied the request on grounds that defendant DellaRocco’s counsel, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matthew Levine, had represented to the Court that Mr. DellaRocco would produce the documents requested by plaintiff and therefore plaintiff would not need a subpoena to assure Mr. DellaRocco’s production on records sought by plaintiff for her use in questioning him at the hearing. 64. However, at hearing on March 30, 2021, Mr. DellaRocco testified that he was unaware of any subpoena and he did not produce the records of the investigation of plaintiffs complaint nor other records plaintiff had sought in her subpoena request which were material to her examination of defendant DellaRocco.. 65. On May 14, 2021, plaintiff obtained a copy of the only record released by DOAG per Carole Briggs, its staff attorney, of defendant DellaRocco’s “investigation” of her complaint, revealing that his superior, Jeremiah Dunn, DOAG chief animal control officer, deemed plaintiff's complaint was “unfounded” and dismissed it as of December 17, 2020 on the grounds that defendant DellaRocco stated that the number used by Carmody to text her harassing message to plaintiff could not be traced to Carmody — a falsehood concocted deliberately by defendant DellaRocco and contradicted by the Redding Police Department, which identified Carmody’s phone as the one used to send the offensive text message and her admission to the Redding Police Department admitting sending it and stating that she regretted sending it. A copy of the report with Ms. Briggs’ cover email (“Here is the investigation report. It is the only record in the file.”) is attached hereto as Exhibit A. 66. On May 18, 2021, plaintiff emailed a request to Mr. Dunn requesting that the investigation of her complaint to Commissioner Hurlburt be reopened. A copy of the email is attached hereto as Exhibit B. 67. On May 19, 2021, plaintiff emailed a corrected request to Mr. Dunn. A copy of the email is attached hereto as Exhibit C. 68. Mr. Dunn did not respond to plaintiff's requests that the “investigation” be reopened.;. indeed, neither he nor Commissioner Hurlburt has responded to any of the numerous communications plaintiff has sent to them in this matter despite her urgent requests for a response. 69.On May 18, 2021, Ms. Briggs emailed to plaintiff as follows: Dear Ms. Burton, _Thank you for your email. This investigation is closed.” (Attached hereto as_ Exhibit D) 11 70. On or about February 3, 2021, defendant DellaRocco secreted himself on the Carmody-Gibbons property in an unheated garage space with Carmody's permission and encouragement to conduct a surveillance of plaintiff and her property. ~ 71.There had recently been a major blizzard and successive heavy winter snowstorms and the ground was covered in deep snow, impeding his visibility from his secretive vantage point. 72. Defendant DellaRocco later testified in court that plaintiff appeared “frail” and “fatigued” and that he felt sorry for her. 73. Thereafter, defendant DellaRocco, in consultation with Mr. Dunn, allegedly ordered a four-day continuous surveillance of plaintiff and her property in collaboration with the defendant Redding Police Department to occur in March. 74.On March 9, 2021, defendant DellaRocco presented an affidavit to Judge D’Andrea, co-signed by DOAG animal control officer Tanya Wescovich, in which he sought an order to search plaintiff's property and seize all her goats. 75. Such affidavit was replete with knowingly false statements, expressions of misogyny, reliance on statements of others who possess malicious motives and lack credibility, including defendant Carmody, who are known to be habitual prevaricators and dishonest by nature and consumed by malice and evidencing ignorance of plaintiff, the goats, plaintiff's care and treatment of the goats and pertinent facts such as to render the affidavit an abuse of the police power and defective, failing to set forth legally sufficient and accurate facts to satisfy due process requirements for issuance of a search and seizure warrant. 76. The search and seizure affidavit presents no lawful or factual cause for the requested invasion of plaintiff's private property and seizure of plaintiff's entire herd of goats. 77.Nevertheless, Judge D'Andrea issued the requested warrant on March 9, 2021, purporting to authorize the immediate seizure of 65 goats from plaintiff's property and invade her home. 78. Plaintiff had previously vacated her home of 35 years and was no longer living in Redding due to her fears and anxiety, inter alia, of the defendants and the tactics they were unscrupulously employing to harass her and interfere with the Mothers Milk Project. 79. The affidavit sets forth no legitimate cause whatsoever for a search of plaintiff's home; yet the warrant issued by Judge D’Andrea purports to authorize a search of plaintiff's home, an unprecedented prospective invasion at the heart of Fourth Amendment privacy protection from invasion by the state. 80. On March 10, 2021, Defendant DellaRocco commenced an unannounced operation on plaintiff's property by breaking apart her security gate in her absence in the company of many DOAG agents and members of the Redding Police Department and Redding First Selectman Julia Pemberton during which _— plaintiff was. ordered by him shortly after her appearance on the property not to communicate with anyone involved in the search-and-seizure operation. 12 81.At the time of the March 10, 2021 operation, defendants DOAG and the Town of Redding and defendant Pemberton were all well aware of the following: A. That plaintiff had made arrangements to transfer 10 female goats and two bucklings on the previous two weekends to SBF Animal Rescue, Inc., (an appointment which had to be postponed because of adverse winter weather conditions — heavy accumulations of snow and ice) to Stoney Brook Farm Animal Rescue, Inc. (“SBF Animal Rescue, Inc.”), an animal rescue sanctuary’ of good repute which is a registered 501(c)(3) charity under the operation and direction of its president, Rosa Buonomo, and is located at 96 Swimming Hola Road in Harwinton, Connecticut and that the twelve goats’ transfer to SBF Animal Rescue, Inc. was imminent; and That SBF Animal Rescue, Inc. had agreed to take in for adoption all of plaintiff's remaining goats shortly thereafter, and That Goats of Anarchy, Inc., which operates a respected goat rescue sanctuary in New Jersey and which is part of a large and reputable goat- adoption network, had also committed to adopting as many of plaintiff's goats as she had available for adoption; and That others in the Redding community had made bona fide requests to adopt plaintiffs goats; and That the Town of Redding, per its town counsel, Steven Stafstrom, Esq., had proposed to plaintiff on March 9, 2021 — the very day defendant DellaRocco applied to Judge D’Andrea for a warrant to seize plaintiff's goats and thereby subject the State of Connecticut and the Town of Redding to significant costs and commitment of significant resources of time, apart from significant legal liabilities - that the Town of Redding would assist financially and in other ways to transfer plaintiff's goats to SBF Animal Rescue, Inc. on condition that plaintiff drop two lawsuits pending against the Town of Redding concerning the goats, a step plaintiff was fully prepared to take, and which proposal Mr. Stafstrom assured he would pursue forthwith with the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Redding with his strong recommendation that the Board enter into such a commitment; and That plaintiff was subject to an order issued by Hon. Barbara Bellis, assigned to the Complex Litigation Docket, to appear for a remote hearing on March 10, 2021 at 9 AM in the two cases she had brought involving her goats; and That plaintiffs goats were in good health, were well-nourished, had access to plentiful clean water, were appropriately sheltered, had access to spacious exercise and grazing areas, received veterinary care when and where appropriate and were loved and well cared for by plaintiff, their devoted caretaker; and That plaintiffs goats are entitled to special protection as participants in and contributors to the Mothers Milk Project, a pro bono public-interest initiative - devoted to public health and education; and. 13 I That DOAG lacked probable or any other cause to search plaintiff's property and seize her goats. 82. Beginning prior to 8 AM on March 10, 2021, defendant DellaRocco and other defendant DOAG agents and members of the defendant Redding Police Department converged unannounced on plaintiff's property and some or all of them unlawfully removed items of plaintiff's personal property inside and outside her home including personal items of great value which are irreplaceable, and committed the following acts of deliberate animal cruelty: A They forcibly removed an estimated 65 goats belonging to plaintiff without her knowledge or acquiescence and without proper legal cause based on a search and seizure warrant fraudulently secured by Defendant DellaRocco; and The forcible removal subjected the goats, who were accustomed to a loving home that provided security, peace, comfort and all their needs, to a time of terror, high anxiety and stress, including two-hour high-speed travel in crowded, unsafe conditions, all of which contribute to ill health; In their ignorance and disinterest, defendant DellaRocco and his DOAC accomplices wilfully separated kid goats from their lactating mothers, thereby depriving them of all the benefits nature intended them to receive as they had received under plaintiff's care for their entire lives and critical nurturing to enhance their well-being and good health; and In their ignorance and wilful disinterest, defendant DellaRocco and his accomplices denied plaintiff's ability to communicate vital facts of each goat’s medical and social history to them to enable them to provide necessary medical and therapeutic care to them during their illegal seizure from their home; and In their ignorance and wilful disinterest, DellaRocco and his accomplices repeatedly denied and ignored plaintiff's requests that she provide them with medications prescribed by a licensed veterinarian as necessary and critical to their treatments and good health and well-being, thereby depriving the goats of the good and devoted care they had been receiving from plaintiff; and In their ignorance and wilful disinterest, DellaRocco and his accomplices refused to communicate with plaintiff so as to discover the true facts as to their medical and physical care, ongoing upgrades to the property and shelters and the provisional, temporary nature of many of the feeding and housing arrangements due to concessions to the weather, namely, the unavoidable forced delay in altering and/or upgrading some of these arrangements until the heavy snow and ice cover receded and temperatures warmed to enable such work to be carried out efficiently. 83. Upon information and belief, plaintiffs goats have been confined in over- crowded conditions ONIONS to simall stalls at the Large Animal facility operated by DOAG __ 14 in Niantic, Connecticut, where they have been subject to the following acts of wilful and deliberate abuse and cruelty to animals: A They have been held captive in small and overcrowded stalls apparently lacking in water and hay supply; and B At least one of plaintiff's goats has died unattended while in state custody; the death apparently occurred 28 days following her seizure by DOAG at which time she was in good health; and According to testimony of DOAG witness Tanya Wescovich, five of plaintiffs goats have given birth to underweight kids, a circumstance scientifically linked to their stressful mistreatment by DOAG and which will likely deprive them of good health in the future; and Goat kids still in need of nursing for their good health and well-being and in need of their mothers’ presence for nurturing have been wilfully separated from their mothers and thereby deprived of these necessities which they enjoyed without interruption or interference at their Redding; and The goats have been illegally photographed offered for sale and/or adoption in an apparent “goat black market” operated by DOAG in knowing violation of law and which has been allowed to corrupt the “open auction” procedure set forth in Conn. Gen. Stat. §29-329a(i), thereby subjecting plaintiff's goats to auction and/or sale and consequent acts of uncontrolled barbarism, terror and deliberate animal abuse and cruelty