A Carroll County farmer charged with animal cruelty and selling tainted meat rejected a plea deal Thursday.
The case also is expected to be placed on the back burner because the lead investigator was a state trooper who was critically wounded Tuesday.
“He says he?s innocent,” said Daniel Green, one of the attorneys representing Carroll Schisler Sr., whose farm was quarantined in April after a pig tested positive for trichinosis.
Prosecutor Jennifer Darby offered a one-year probation and a fine “in the $10,000 range,” Green said.
Darby refused to comment on the details of the offer.
A Carroll County Circuit Court grand jury indicted Schisler and his son, Carroll Schisler Jr., in July for animal cruelty; failing to provide nutrition and food to pigs, chickens and a cow; feeding garbage to swine; and selling contaminated meat.
Schisler Sr. refused a plea bargain, said Roland Walker, another one of his lawyers, after a pretrial conference Thursday in the chambers of Carroll County Circuit Judge J. Barry Hughes.
Also during the conference, Hughes recused himself from the case ? at the defense lawyers? request ? because the judge had represented Fred Schisler, Schisler Sr.?s estranged brother, in a family dispute.
Fred Schisler and three other estranged siblings filed a complaint in October alleging that the 114-acre farm on Marston Road in New Windsor belongs to them because their late mother was not competent when she signed her will, leaving the $2 million property to Schisler Sr.
A new judge has not been assigned to the case, but Michael Galloway and Thomas Stansfield are the other two circuitcourt judges.
All of the court dates have been delayed because Trooper 1st Class Eric Workman, the lead investigator, was critically wounded Tuesday when a suspect in a home invasion and kidnapping in Eldersburg shot him.
Workman?s recovery will take a long time, said Sgt. Charles Moore, of the state police barracks in Westminster.
“He?s like my ace in the hole,” Moore said. “If I ever have a dangerous person, I give it to Eric, because he finds them.”
