Baltimore County lawyer, wife get jail time for horse neglect 

Posted: 2:55 pm Mon, August 2, 2010
By Danny Jacobs

One year ago this week, a district court judge sentenced Hilton and Donna Silver to three weekends in jail each for fatally neglecting one of their horses because the judge did not hear remorse.

The lawyer and his wife offered remorse Monday at their sentencing after losing on appeal to the Baltimore County Circuit Court. But the outcome was worse for the couple.

Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. sentenced Hilton Silver to 60 days in jail and Donna Silver to 30 days. He also ordered them to pay the county more than $16,000 in restitution for its care of two other horses animal control removed from their Windsor Mill home in March 2009.

The couple will also be on five years’ probation following their jail time and forbidden from owning horses.

“They need to accept what they did, pay the piper and move on,” Bollinger said, calling the photos of the emaciated horses the worst he has seen in 22 years on the bench. “Society just can’t condone this.”

Donna Silver began serving her 30-day sentence Monday, while Hilton Silver will begin his Sept. 1. Bollinger staggered the sentences so that a parent would be home to care for the couple’s teenage daughter.

The Silvers have each already served six days in jail based on their district court guilty pleas. They appealed those convictions to circuit court, where Bollinger found them guilty in April.

Bollinger denied Hilton Silver’s motion for a new trial prior to sentencing.

County police and animal control officers went to the Silvers’ Windsor Mill home in March 2009 after receiving a phone call about a horse lying under a tarp for several days, according to a police report and previous courtroom testimony. Calypso, a 27-year-old gray mare, was lying on her right side in her own fecal matter, unable to raise her head.

The other horses, a chestnut Arabian and bay Arabian, were visibly underweight, with cracked hooves and burrs in their manes, according to the police report.

“Either [the Silvers] couldn’t recognize pain and suffering or they didn’t care,” Assistant State’s Attorney Adam Lippe said before sentencing. “They’re mean people and they did a mean thing to three horses by choice.”

Calypso was in such poor shape that the veterinarian called to the house by animal control euthanized her even after the Silvers said they could not afford to pay the fee in $10 monthly installments. Bollinger ordered the couple to pay the $275 bill in full.

The two surviving horses were seized by the county and taken to Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Woodbine. They remain in the county’s possession because only Donna Silver forfeited ownership initially and because they could not be sold until the legal issues in the case had been resolved.

David A. Greenbaum, Hilton Silver’s lawyer, urged Bollinger to let the district court punishment stand, noting the couple has kept dogs and cats without incident, and a presentence investigation showed no evidence Hilton Silver would be a repeat offender. Greenbaum, of Freeman, Wolfe & Greenbaum P.A. in Towson, also implied that Lippe has referred the case to the Attorney Grievance Commission.

“It may lead to disbarment,” Greenbaum said. “The seed has been sown.”

Bar Counsel, which represents the Attorney Grievance Commission, has a policy of not commenting on whether a lawyer is being investigated. Silver, a Baltimore County solo practitioner, has been licensed in Maryland for 25 years without any record of public discipline.

Hilton Silver, who attempted to offer advice to Greenbaum during Monday’s hearing, took his lawyer’s advice and read a prepared statement apologizing for his actions.

“I will live with my inability to care for these horses the rest of my life,” he said in an emotionless  monotone. “I learned a lesson by the greatest cost.”

But Silver went against Greenbaum’s advice later by personally objecting to several comments Lippe made about facts in the case. Following the hearing, Silver angrily called Lippe a “piece of [excrement]” several times and nearly had to be restrained by a sheriff’s deputy.

Donna Silver, by contrast, quietly sat through most of the hearing, occasionally dabbing her eyes with a tissue. At one point, however, she blurted out the euthanasia fee when Lippe could not find the number. She gave an at-times rambling statement to the court, wishing she had “more courage” to reach out for help when the horses were in trouble.

“I’ve spent a lot of time going over in my head what I could have done different,” she said, her voice quivering. “I never expected the best I could do wasn’t much.”

Michelle Moodispaw, an assistant public defender representing Donna Silver, said her client accepted responsibility but her mental health issues prevented her from really helping the horses.

“I don’t think she was able to see how badly things got as they progressed,” Moodispaw said.