This month, the law firm Larson LLP filed a civil rights lawsuit against Humboldt County on behalf of local rancher Ray Christie.

The profusely illustrated 67-page civil rights complaint, which also names Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, former Humboldt County Deputy Sheriff Travis Mendes, former Deputy District Attorney Adrian Kamada, and other parties as co-defendants, alleges that the county law enforcement officers unlawfully searched and seized Christie’s property and possessions during a March 19, 2018, raid on the rancher’s Jackson Ranch Road property.

At that time, the sheriff’s office alleged a number of animal abuses, saying that nearly 300 cows were found dead at the property. The sheriff’s office said that cows were found stacked 10 feet high. It also alleged that remains were found near waterways and alleged a series of animal abuses toward dogs on the property.

Christie was initially charged with 35 counts related to animal abuse — seven felonies and 28 misdemeanors; those charges were eventually reduced. Ultimately, Christie’s case resulted in a hung jury in 2019, with jurors in agreement on some 25 misdemeanor counts; felony counts and nearly a dozen misdemeanor charges on which the jury was deadlocked were subsequently thrown out in 2023.

Christie’s suit alleges that local law enforcement personnel and agencies, acting under the color of law, “wrongfully and maliciously prosecuted (Christie) as an alleged animal abuser for several years, until the District Attorney had no choice but to dismiss those felony charges in the face of insurmountable evidentiary challenges.”

The lawsuit lays out, in great detail, an account of the 30-person raid involving “SWAT-type personnel, … in full gear, with automatic assault weapons aimed at Ray and his girlfriend,” painting a graphic portrait of Christie as a man targeted by law enforcement because of personal animus and ambition.

“Ray Christie was unfairly and improperly singled out for investigation and prosecution,” Christie’s attorney Rick Richmond told the Times-Standard by phone earlier this month. “Humboldt County has a cattle problem on its hands and has … for a very long time. Humboldt County has not properly addressed that problem.”

Christie’s complaint says that his business model essentially involves buying and rehabilitating “subpar cattle” culled by other ranchers, purchased at discounted prices from the Humboldt Auction Yard in Fortuna — many despite being in a condition, Richmond says, in which it is illegal to sell an animal. Richmond said that Christie has been targeted as a “scapegoat” for broader failings on behalf of the cattle industry in Humboldt County.

The Times-Standard reached out to the Humboldt Auction Yard, but had not heard back from the auction’s management at the time of publication.

“Ray knows how to ‘beef up’ the subpar animals culled out of other ranchers’ and dairy farmers’ herds,” the complaint alleges. “Ray’s ability to feed his family and succeed as a businessman depends on him caring for his animals in an active manner. Intentional or even passive neglect of animals would be against Ray’s business interests. Neglecting his animals would make no sense. And neglecting his animals would go against everything Ray was, is, and will ever be. Ray is an animal lover.”

One of the substantial claims that Christie’s lawyers made — both in the complaint and during the trial — is that Humboldt County is without rendering services that would dispose of culled cattle that were unsaleable.

Oroville-based North State Rendering was among the last to offer rendering services to Humboldt County but halted service to the area in 2015. As such, it’s incumbent on ranchers to dispose of injured, sick and dead cattle humanely and legally on their properties, leaving larger cattle operations to potentially deal with dozens if not hundreds of dead cattle each year.

Then-Humboldt County Agricultural Commissioner Jeff Dolf told the Times-Standard in 2018 that the county had not had a local facility or local service to dispose of deceased livestock since 2003, when the Eureka Protein Co. facility in South Eureka closed.

“They get sick and they may not respond to treatment. There is mortality associated with animal agriculture,” Dolf said. “Having said that, the people that have these animals and care for them, they really care about their animals. It’s an investment for them. The majority of people that are responsible agricultural producers take care of those animals.”

“Cows look very sturdy if you just are driving by them, (but) they’re actually fragile creatures,” Richmond said. “An absolutely normal, closed herd — meaning a herd that doesn’t have any outsiders coming into it — experiences a 10% mortality rate. So if you had a closed herd of 500 cattle, you would expect 50 of them to die.”

Cattle mortality rates vary widely and have increased in recent years. According to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), beef cows on feedlots will typically have a 1%-2% mortality rate, with mortality rates for dairy cows significantly higher — 5%-8% — and mortality rates among calves exceeding 10%. Additionally, roughly 3% of calves are born dead, according to APHIS statistics.

“There is no place for the carcasses to go in Humboldt County. Cattle ranchers like Ray have no choice but to make ‘dead piles’ on their properties or bury the carcasses as best they can,” Christie’s complaint says. “… It is an impossible task to clean up carcasses in the Arcata Bottoms. All cattle ranchers or dairy farmers in Humboldt County face the same problem with disposal of their cattle carcasses.”

The Times-Standard confirmed with local officials, on background, that it was still the case that there were very few options for ranchers in the area to dispose of deceased animals. It’s the of ranchers to dispose of dead animals, either by contracting with out-of-the-area firms at a significant expense or disposing of animals on their property. Resources are available from the county and UC Cooperative Extension on how to dispose of animals legally.

Among the allegations in Christie’s complaint is that his operation was singled out for prosecution despite bad actors in the area being allowed to carry on operations indiscriminately.

In a section titled “Nothing Has Changed in Humboldt County, and Sheriff Honsal, the Sheriff’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office Continue to Ignore Animal Abuse by Others,” Christie’s complaint specifically points to allegations against Alexandre Family Farm, a national provider of organic dairy products.

Alexandre has been accused of a number of instances of animal abuse in recent years, which are detailed in the complaint. Christie’s lawyers contend that Alexandre was presented with the allegations and allowed to remedy any noncompliance through formal channels — rather than be raided by law enforcement.

“Alexandre is renowned for its carefully curated marketing image of having happy, healthy cows,” the complaint says. “…. However, the underbelly of Alexandre’s operations reveals something more sinister. Despite its picture-perfect branding, Alexandre has faced a litany of accusations regarding animal abuse, which largely came to life thanks to whistleblowers who worked on the dairies and came forward. … Alexandre touted its 2023 cull rate of 23% — nearly a quarter of its herd — as “relatively low for the industry and a testament to the longevity in our herd.”

A 2024 USDA report on Alexandre, provided by Richmond as evidence of unequal application of the law, substantiated many claims of animal abuse but recommended the USDA’s case on the subject be closed because of remedies ostensibly put in place.

“Some of the allegations were substantiated by the investigation process and some were not substantiated,” that document notes. “Due to systemic failures found at Alexandre, they received a Combined Notice of Noncompliance and Proposed Suspension from their certifier, CCOF (the California Certified Organic Farmers). Alexandre changed multiple practices and procedures, trained staff, hired an animal welfare consultant and corrected all noncompliances.”

Christie has previously been arrested in connection to animal abuse charges. In 2009, a mistrial was declared in a case accusing Christie of breeding roosters for cockfighting and possession of cockfighting implements. Christie was subsequently accused of assaulting his brother Mike Christie.

Christie’s complaint alleges a “jealous desire to take Ray down” on behalf of certain law enforcement professionals. The complaint, which at times waxes rhapsodic, at one point compares Christie to Kevin Costner’s “Yellowstone” protagonist being threatened by Mendes, who is described as a “wannabee cowboy” whose father even allegedly boasted, “my son Travis took Ray Christie down.”

“Deputy Mendes apparently developed a jealous desire to take Ray down,” the complaint alleges. “Perhaps Deputy Mendes envisioned himself as some sort of Wild West competitor who could improperly use his Livestock Deputy position to force Ray out of the cattle business and take his place. Imagine a real-life villain determined to ruin the likes of a real-life rancher, such as what the fictional cattle rancher John Dutton faced in the famous Yellowstone series from several wannabe cattle rancher competitors.”

The complaint concludes: “Deputy Mendes and Deputy DA Kamada singled Ray out and scapegoated him for the systemic issues created by the county’s lack of planning and oversight. In the absence of such planning and oversight, Ray served as the local trashman for unwanted, sick and mistreated cattle that have been cast aside by local ranchers and dairy farmers when the animals lost their usefulness.

“Rather than addressing the root of the systemic issues — potentially mistreated cattle being sold at the Humboldt Auction Yard, and the lack of a rendering plant forcing ranchers to dispose of carcasses on their land — Deputy Mendes and Deputy DA Kamada chose to target Ray as their scapegoat, for their own personal gain and all under the color of state law. Ray was a visible, convenient, and satisfying target. But in their overzealousness to bring Ray down, Deputy Mendes and Deputy DA Kamada’s misconduct and obvious abuse of their positions of power violated Ray’s constitutional rights. Ray Christie, and the mistreated and ignored cattle of Humboldt County, deserved better.”

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Erin Inskip told the Times-Standard this month that “Travis Mendes left the Sheriff’s Office and is employed by another public safety agency.” She said that “Sheriff Honsal has not been served with the lawsuit and will not be making any statements until he can read the entire complaint.”

Humboldt County spokesperson Catarina Gallardo provided the following statement: “This an important matter for the county, however, this is a pending legal matter, and to preserve the integrity of the process, the County of Humboldt cannot provide further comment to the press at this time.”

The entirety of Christie’s complaint can be read at: https://tinyurl.com/zwvyxet2.