Kelsey Lefever of PA charged with 3 felonies

[Acertainsmile]

[QUOTE=DressageFancy;6091061]
This. It is not that the horses went to kill. It is that the owners were tricked. Fraud. That is what is wrong here. It is not unlawful to sell to kill buyers. It is unlawful to lie to people for $ gain. It just hurts sooo much more when a living animal involved in the fraud looses it’s life…[/QUOTE]

There is a zero tolerance at that track for trainers who sell direct to kill buyers, or who’s horses end up in a kill pen. This girl could have really gotten a few trainers unkowingly in deep trouble, with lot’s of explaining to do.

[awaywego]

Just read the affidavit:

1. hearty kudos to State Trooper Colleen Shelley for a job well done.

2. so who’s Melissa? The name is mentioned in the affidavit on advertising for the fake rescue (coffee mugs). I assume she’s the one with the “excellent training facility” also mentioned in the affidavit.

[me_and_only_me]

[QUOTE=Dahoss;6085039]
Another photo of this horse killer! Spread her face all over!!!

[http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kelsey+lefever&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=853&bih=548&tbm=isch&tbnid=zlijg-XAH2uWcM:&imgrefurl=http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/pennsylvania-farm-fires-kelsey-lefever/&docid=5gHhlJ3BIu25uM&imgurl=http://www.paulickreport.com/assets/Media/Photos/_resampled/PostExpanded-Kelsey-Lefever.jpg&w=640&h=697&ei=SXAYT8qNMKPb0QHY4NSsCw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=517&sig=105453009330636320058&page=1&tbnh=170&tbnw=137&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=99&ty=53]][/QUOTE]
to the people who have posted pictures of kelsey whether what she did was misleading or wrong you have know right to plaster a pic that includes her daughter in it in any of you posts

[AlexS]

Awaywego, I don’t think it would be smart to name someone who does not have police charges against them.

[Acertainsmile]

She’ll be a poplular girl, someone just put her # up on the webz.

[Blinkers_On]

[QUOTE=Dahoss;6085039]
Another photo of this horse killer! Spread her face all over!!!

[http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kelsey+lefever&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=853&bih=548&tbm=isch&tbnid=zlijg-XAH2uWcM:&imgrefurl=http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ray-s-paddock/pennsylvania-farm-fires-kelsey-lefever/&docid=5gHhlJ3BIu25uM&imgurl=http://www.paulickreport.com/assets/Media/Photos/_resampled/PostExpanded-Kelsey-Lefever.jpg&w=640&h=697&ei=SXAYT8qNMKPb0QHY4NSsCw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=517&sig=105453009330636320058&page=1&tbnh=170&tbnw=137&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=99&ty=53][/QUOTE]

Wow, she looks totally evil.

[Sandman]

[QUOTE=Acertainsmile;6091291]
She’ll be a poplular girl, someone just put her # up on the webz.[/QUOTE]

She’s already posted her own number on the Web, as she still has a couple of cheap baby TBs listed on dreamhorse.com. Hopefully that means they haven’t shipped north yet.

[Blinkers_On]

[QUOTE=danceronice;6087112]
As you can see from the I-40 thread, ThatGuy, I don’t object to slaughter as a universal rule. I DO have a problem with lying to obtain horses (and apparently money, too) from owners under pressure to send them to a good home. Sending horses to slaughter’s not illegal. FRAUD, on the other hand, definitely is.[/QUOTE]

Agreed

[HappyTailsRRS]

I know how you feel Alex

I’m Tera Schauer, president and founder of Happy Tails Rescue Rehabilitation and Sanctuary, the rescue that Kelsey used to promote and defend herself to bonafide rescuers and race owners/ trainers with before Melissa Michaels was around. (Yes, I feel comfortable stating her name, it has been all over Kelsey’s public FB page in posts and photos for quite some time now and honestly, I believe she was duped too).

I also considered Kelsey a friend and fellow horse lover and rescuer until I started becoming suspicious and ultimately had to have the truth set in front of me by Deb Jones. The weird thing is - I don’t think I would have ever believed what Deb was telling me in that phone call if I didn’t know Kelsey as well as I had gotten to know her in only 8 months. There are definitely two Kelsey’s out there and the nurse in me has started to wonder if she actually has a multiple personality disorder, is sociopathic, or is a schizophrenic. She’s at the right age for this sort of behavior to really start making it’s head.

Alex - there are answers for all of your questions - and if you need answers to help cope, I would be more than happy to talk with you privately about them. I am pretty sure I know who you are from her FB page, and more than a few times I have wanted to reach out to you, but worried that you were involved and we needed to tread lightly with more lives still on her property and Kelsey still communicating with Rotz. So glad that you were as oblivious as I was in the beginning through all of this. Some of the answers to your questions are extremely private in nature and despite the fact that there are moments where I would like to hook up Slim and Jim and drag her by her hair behind them at a full tilt, I can’t bring myself to share those answers on a public forum. Ava doesn’t deserve to have those things floating around the internet about her mother. Someday she will be old enough to surf the web and undoubtedly she will be coming across more than she should have to know about her mother to begin with.
***As a side note, I would also like to join Alex in stating it is completely inappropriate to be spreading this innocent child’s face around. ***
Please crop your pictures and then spread them like wildfire because while Kelsey WILL be going to jail, she will be out again in due time. And let me tell you folks, this is the only way of life she knows - no matter how hard she may work to become a better person, she will always fall back on using horses any way she can to get her out of a squeeze. As Trooper Shelley has told me - it’s very hard to get someone to legally never be able to own an animal again - usually at best it’s only a set number of years until they can again.
As for the bail question - I can answer that one - Kelsey’s mother took out a loan to pay her bail. As of right before Christmas it was said by another friend that she had shelled out 30K in bail and legal fees to date for her daughter.

And for That Guy… I’m going to break my normally PC persona and tell you to f off for everyone. You have not a clue as to what you are talking about. I was the person she called in panic mode the day she picked up Daniella Rose, the pregnant mare with an Auto Pilot baby from Mel Hoover’s, stating she needed me to talk to ‘some TB investigator lady’ to defend her allegations that Kelsey was going to send the group of babies she had purchased to slaughter. I consoled her that day, telling her how wonderful of a person I knew she was and that I would support her in whatever way I could because I knew what a good heart she had. That’s when she broke down, crying, and I got the story about her having a “KB family and bf in the past and it wasn’t always this way”. I was present - picking up an emaciated Belgian she extorted $250 out of us for WHILE she was having the tail end of that panicked conversation with Amy about trying to throw Deb Jones off the trail - as a matter of fact, she was giving me a hug hello and waving to my toddler coming up behind as she was saying the vague words on her cell. You have not a clue what you are talking about and only hurting the needed outcome of this situation - which is no one ever entrusting their animal to her, ever.
My last point here… we are not really sure how many more animals (she also back yard breeds minis, pot bellied pigs, puppies, chickens, goats and a variety of other animals intermittently) she has on the property “Brandamore Belgians” that she leases from her ex’s grandfather. There was a GARGANTUAN pig named Lunchbox that I can’t even begin to think of trying to place without having a small anxiety attack. Today she has been placing cold calls to people, desperate to sell off a few of the remaining TB’s. I imagine she is getting pretty desperate after loosing the only 2 steady avenues of income that she had - blood money from Rotz and then her new job at Great Scott (and truly GS - please do not feel responsible in anyway for not ‘digging deep enough’. I know one of the references she listed is convinced Kelsey has changed and is willing to lie about what she knows to get her on a good track). Her desperation is what scares me. She knows how to make horses disappear.

I am putting this out there for her to either read herself or to be passed along to her - we will take them, Kelsey. No questions asked. No investigators hunting your every move until Feb 6th, no trainers and owners calling your phone anymore trying to see if their horse is still over there. But you know that I won’t play the bail game anymore, so don’t try it. Straight surrender, cut your losses and spend your time with Ava and Mike instead of hunting for ways to get rid of who is left. New number is 570-437-0083. You know I don’t play like Ac4H, I’m just one of those bleeding hearts who wants the best for the horses.

[johnnysauntie]

^ +1

[Faverot]

LeFever…& Sexism

May I suggest, at the risk of subjecting myself to attack or at the very least criticism, that an overlooked factor in the story of Kelsey Elva Lefever & what has apparently happened on a repeated basis at Penn National & other Thoroughbred racing facilities (including lay-up farms) is…

…her status as a physically attractive young woman…showing up in places, that is, the backsides of Thoroughbred race-tracks & Thoroughbred racing facilities,…

that are overwhelmingly populated by men &, may I suggest…

…dominated by a male-oriented ethos that reeks of sexism & places a high value on female physical beauty & sex-appeal &…

…that permits what most self-respecting adults would find to be offensive sexist behavior, verbal & otherwise.

I was not & am not privy to the facts of Ms. Lefever’s “visits” to the Thoroughbred facilities when she arrived to meet with trainers & owners seeking rescue & sanctuary for their Thoroughbred racers.

However, I have spent enough time at Thoroughbred racetracks & other Thoroughbred racing facilties to have observed, over & over again, what happens when a…

…a physically attractive woman, often 30 years of age or younger, arrives on the scene.

The backside male workers, including a number of the trainers, more often than not behave in a manner that is ostensibly & objectively different toward these women than they do towards…

…men (physically attractive or not) who show up or frequent the same facilities.

I my mind’s eye, I can see Ms. Lefever driving up in her truck with the trailer attached & stepping out of the cab of the truck…

…attired, no doubt, in jodhpurs or riding pants, with tall boots, in a sleek blouse or jacket, with a baseball cap on &…

…a fetching smile on her face.

Her appearance at these Thoroughbred facilities, attired as such–& I have witnessed other women making such appearances at these facilities, no doubt elicited…

“approval”…

…in the minds of the men who happened to be present.

The brain & its operative metaphor, the mind, is a powerful organ & subject to influence by a wide range of physical & psychological factors, including bias & bigotry, &…

…that includes sexism.

Sexism has been documented to influence not only perception but also observable behavior in humans–& may I suggest that sexism played a role in…

…Kelsey Elva Lefever’s brutal & murderous exploitation of Thoroughbred & (likely other breeds of) horses.

Sexism… is alive & well in America & I cannot fairly single out Thoroughbred racing for participating in its practice.

However, I believe it useful to consider & bear in mind how sexism can influence behavior, particularly in men & in a world/activity-occupation dominated by men & a prejudicially male-oriented ethos.

[Faverot]

LeFever…Did NOT Act Alone: Michelson, Rotz, Whiteside et al.

It is also important to observe that LeFever did NOT engage in her deception & murderous exploitation…on her own. CANTER USA reported back in May 2011 that LeFever was promoting herself & her “rehoming” & “rehabilitation” services in the… company of Melissa Michelson, who has yet to come forward to explain her participation in LeFever’s murderous enterprise or to disavow her complicity. The PA State Police have investigated Michelson & interviewed her as well as part of its investigation of LeFever but Michelson has yet to go public with an explanation or even an apology. And it is very likely that, apart from the involvement of Bruce Rotz, official Slaughter representative for Richelieu Horse Slaughter (Canada) & John Whiteside of the horrific New Holland alughter auction, that other people colluded with LeFever in her deception & murder.

Here’s the CANTER USA Email on LeFever & Michelson, as posted in a comment to/on The Paulick Report under the story “Protect Your Horses: You Are All They Have”:

From CANTER USA:From:

To: canterpa@canterusa.org;

Cc: CANTER Mid-Atlantic;

Re: Heads up

Sue, thank you so much. Charles town officials called me about this girl yesterday so it seems they have been burned as well. I really hope there is a police report filed so we can post about it on the website.

On Saturday, May 21, 2011, <canterpa> wrote:</canterpa>

> Hey there,

> Please pass word to your volunteers/trainers in the Mid-Atlantic area that we’ve had a huge problem this past year with Kelsey Lefever. She’s a 23 year old, pretty brunette, who poses as a horse rescuer, rehoming OTTBs. I had been trying to warn trainers, but I had no proof (other than common sense) until today. This girl has taken somewhere between 50 and 75 horses this past year, all FREE, most of which were slaughtered immediately. She has been banned from Penn (which really takes a lot of effort!). She first showed up here with Melissa Michelson (M & M Equestrian - which is a beautiful facility); she claimed the horses would go there to be trained and rehomed, even broodmares, lame horses, etc. She then snuggled up to one of our more respected trainers, he gave her instant validation, encouraging everyone to give her horses - and she wasn’t taking from our shady trainers, she was taking from many of our top trainers.

> Last Friday, a trainer had a nice horse who needed rest. She gave Kelsey $300 plus 10 bags of feed to TAKE the horse, with an offer to continue paying his expenses until she found him a good home. Monday, 3 days later, the horse was ID’d in New Holland’s kill pen. A police report has been filed, but I suspect she will try this BS at other local tracks. Please keep an eye out for her, she talks a good game, but she’s a butcher.

@canterusa.org>

[Laurierace]

So happy to see that there are still some sane people involved in horse rescue in the Mid-Atlantic. Keep up the great work guys!

[Xctrygirl]

Not confirmed, but if anyone was at New Holland this week and can speak to this, it’d be great.

Word on the street is that she sold every horse she had remaining at Monday’s New Holland Auction, through the ring. Now, like I said… it’s what was passed on by some folks who were there.

I was at my job. I was not there. Anyone who can confirm or deny this, please step up.

~Emily

[moonriverfarm]

Could this **tch get any sleazier? She belongs in the same catch pen as PV and BW, and the Sandman.

[Faverot]

Yes, Xctrygirl, I too learned from another person that…LeFever was at the horrific New Holland auction early this week, on Monday…with her daughter in tow, where she was selling, among others, a pony.

Is Coatesville near Honeybrook, where LeFever & Melissa Michelson live?

I have tried calling Michelson at the farm she apparently owns, M & M Equestrian, but no one picks up.

The State Police will not discuss what they learned from their investigation/interview with Melissa Michelson…& have thus far declined to file charges against her.

However, at the very least, Michelson needs to come forward & explain her involvement with LeFever & at the very least apologize for working with LeFever in deceiving Thoroughbred trainers & owners about the horses tragically given over to Lefever, with the promise that the horses would be “rehabilitated” at Michelson’s M & M Equestrian facility.

Michelson, in addition to the M & Equestrian Web site, has a Facebook page & she lists as a “Friend”…

…Brandamore Belgians Farm, which is the “business” name of LeFever’s murderous enterprise.

Btw: The Facebook page for Brandamore Belgians Farm list only one “Friend”: Melissa Michelson.

I am hoping that we can get the media & press to confront Michelson & reveal what her role was in Lefever’s horse-for-butcher business.

In the meantime, I would strongly discourage ANYONE from entrusting their to Michelson or M & M Equestrian.

Michelson can clear up these questions by going public with an account of her role in LeFever’s butcher enterprise & at the very least apologize for associating herself with LeFever, her deception, & brutal horse-trade for slaughter.
…

[FairWeather]

I did not give anybody permission to post my personal emails. I don’t know how you got that or who you are, but it makes me very uneasy. Please remove the people’s names in the distribution list.

[danceronice]

Might not want to use hyperbolic terms like “murderous.” She’s a fraud case. There’s never any point in looking like hysterics. That the horses are dead is the evidence, not the crime. The crime is fraud (and if she’s got accomplices conspiracy to defraud.)

[kcmel]

Wow! I met Melissa when I was horse-shopping last year. She seemed to have a good business model going and was selling a lot of horses. And as someone mentioned, she has a very nice place. I’m very surprised and saddened to hear that she is involved in this.

[dilligaff2]

Faverot, You have crossed the line in posting people’s email.

Please remove.