Further info…
“A 10-year-old horse is expected to have preexisting medical conditions.”
Give me a break!
VISTA: Tom Selleck testifies in show horse trial
Selleck family filed suit in 2006
Tom Selleck went to see a judge about a horse Tuesday.
The actor, writer and producer is best known as the fictional television sleuth Thomas Magnum from the show “Magnum, P.I.,” which ran on CBS from 1980 to 1988.
On Tuesday, Selleck appeared in a Vista courtroom as the first witness called in a jury trial to decide whether he and his family were wronged by the sellers of a competition horse purchased for $120,000 in 2006.
In the civil trial’s opening statements, Selleck’s attorney accused Del Mar businesswoman and equestrian Dolores Cuenca of trying to pass off a show horse with a career-ending medical condition as one suitable for Selleck’s 20-year-old daughter, Hannah, to ride in high-level amateur competitions.
The attorney, George Knopfler, told the jury that seller Cuenca knew “Zorro” suffered from lameness in the years she owned him.
Knopfler said Cuenca and her trainers spent a few years showing the horse to make it attractive for sale. Frequent steroid injections to make the horse appear healthier were part of the alleged ruse, he said. Within weeks of receiving Zorro, the Sellecks discovered Zorro’s lameness, Knopfler said.
“This case is really about greed, deception and arrogance,” Knopfler said.
But defense attorney Robert Scapa said steroid injections are par for the course in competitive riding ---- not evidence of deception by Cuenca.
He said Selleck and his wife, Jillie Mack-Selleck, didn’t do their homework prior to the sale, including checking the veterinarian records of the 10-year-old Zorro.
“If she had just done the bare minimum, if she had just talked to her veterinarian, she never would have bought the horse,” Scape said of Mack-Selleck. “A 10-year-old horse is expected to have preexisting medical conditions.”
Tom Selleck is one of several witnesses in the trial in which the Sellecks are seeking unspecified damages. The case could be in court for up to two weeks.
His early testimony drew several objections from the defense attorney, who said Selleck’s explanations of his history with horses went beyond the scope of questioning.
“I haven’t testified in court ---- except in the movies,” Selleck said in response to a question from his attorney shortly after taking the stand.
At one point, Selleck commented from the stand that his answer was relevant.
Some of the objections were sustained by Superior Court Judge Robert Dahlquist who, after a 15-minute break, asked Selleck to be more “direct” in his answers.
Selleck said that he got his first real taste of riding during preparations to shoot the 1979 Western film “The Sacketts.”
Though he owns horses and lauded his daughter’s riding accomplishments, he did not portray himself as a sophisticated horseman.
“We have a three-stable barn, a 29-year-old pony and a very old movie horse,” he said.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_712e6330-279b-5545-8d49-8606a936c1f4.html
