This is the case of the State of Ohio versus Steffen Evan Baldwin. It is case number 20 CR 99.

Hi, and welcome to the Animal Welfare Junction. This is your host, Dr. G, and our music is written and produced by Mike Sullivan. This is Episode Four of our Season One series, State versus Steffen Baldwin, and it is titled The Rise to Fame. Now, before we go on, I wanna remind our audience that these episodes contain elements of animal cruelty and domestic violence. So please take care of yourself and take a pause if you find that we're sharing something that is triggering to you. In the next episodes, we're gonna be sharing interviews with witnesses and victims, information from other sources, such as news and podcast, and clips from the court hearings. We hope to share information that's going to help our audience understand what Baldwin did, how he got away with it for so long, and how he was eventually stopped. This is not only important for his victims to get closure, but also to help those who love and care for animals avoid a situation like this from happening again. So we are going to start with Detective Jim Conroy and we will hear from Steffen himself through a podcast appearance he made in Getting Real with Josh Boyer so that we can go back to Steffen's beginnings in Animal Welfare at the Union County Humane Society.

He applied to be the, uh, Executive Director of the, Union, County Humane Society. And on his resume, he, he stated that he worked with dogs for two years.

My dad's a dog trainer first and foremost. Uh, he has a, uh, a well established business in Pasadena. He's been doing this since the 1950s or so. Um, and uh, it's interesting because him and I have similar, similar career paths. We have a completely different methodology when it comes to working with animals.

Now if anybody watched that Josh Boyer podcast that Baldwin was on, that's on YouTube, when he was in California in that podcast, he admits to lying about that, um, that it was only two years. But he stated he worked with his father, 'cause his father, Howard Finkelstein, has been in dog training his whole life for 50 some years, and apparently did some Hollywood dog training for Hollywood dogs.

So my dad's dog trainer, I had the nonprofit experience. They were hiring for a shelter director. So I kind of played up my experience with my dad. I was like, oh yeah, my dad's trainer. I didn't freaking know the guy until like two years earlier, but, you know, kind of, yeah. And I did, I worked with him for two years at his as facility, but it was just two years. It wasn't like a lifetime of it. Uh, but because of my fundraising experience, because of, uh, so because of that, they gave me my first job, uh, running a shelter. So that was like 2008 was my first chance actually working at an animal shelter. It was a private humane society. I did that until, uh, my divorce in 2011, uh, separation slash divorce. Yeah. And then at that time I took on another job at the Humane Society. I was the shelter director, which I love that. I love that so much. But they're also hiring for an animal cruelty investigator.

But he hated his father and had no relationship with his father. But on his resume, when he got the executive director job, he claimed that he was an executive director at two places. So Union County thinks he's an executive director and he's worked with dogs, great fit and they hire him. Well, he was never an executive director and he didn't work with dogs 'cause he had no relationship with his father at that time.

So, Mary Beth Brown, I was Mary Beth Hall at the time, I was the, uh, chief Union County dog warden. I was also a humane agent for the Humane Society of Delaware County. And that was from 2007 to 2017. I think Stefan was the first director after Rachel. So, you know, he was handed a Humane Society that was run very well by somebody who was very ethical and is very, very devoted to the, to the field.

There's not enough background check. It's like people look for, for a resume and then you read the resume and take it as this is it. Right? Like whatever's in here must be true. In Steffen's case, it didn't look like they actually looked into or called any of his references. They just kinda went with, oh, he says he's an executive director, so obviously that must be it.

Exactly. And he always put on a show, so like, he talked about all the things he did,

So that's how he gets hired. So he starts in August of '08. Uh, so he had moved from California, uh, and then moved to Marysville and then, uh, he worked till, uh, December 31st of 2013.

Would you state your name for the record, please?

Stephanie Van Brimmer.

When

did you fir first meet Mr. Baldwin? Do you remember? I don't remember the year, but I remember the situation.

What was the situation?

There was a volunteer orientation at the Union County Humane Society that I had signed up for, um, to start volunteering at the Humane Society.

And

if you recall, I know it's been a while, what was your first impression of Mr. Baldwin when you met him? I admired what he was doing for, um, the animals within the community. I, he was an inspiration to me because that was something I had a passion for doing. And so, um, I really looked up to the work that he was doing in the community.

So January 1st, 2014, he started ACT as a humane, you know, another humane society. However, while working as the executive director at, um, union County Humane Society, you know, he claims that they were not taking animal cruelty seriously and that they were, you know, euthanizing Pit Bulls or if there was a Pit Bull, they were being euthanized. And that he had a problem with that. Um, and that, you know, he really took, uh, uh, an interest in, in the cruelty aspect of it. So he went to and got his, uh, I think it was a 20 hour class he had taken, uh, online, uh. Uh, through the state of Ohio to become a humane agent, which he did.

So I was like, I'm gonna do that. And on the, on the evenings when I'm done being the director, doing admin stuff, I'll just hit the field, put my boots on, go out in the field, just do like hands-on animal cruelty investigation work. Yeah. Um, and that was like, that was great for me. I was able to do that. Um, got commissioned, um, and, uh. It is funny. In Ohio they have, you go through two and a half days of training, two days, two days actually, of training. They've changed it, but when I went through, they, they make you watch this video and it's an old ass video. And then on the, on the first day, second day, on the morning of the third day, uh, they give you the test and they give you all the questions and all the answers and they're like, just let us know when you're done reading. All the, just memorize, okay, got it. Take the test. Here you go. You're, you now have full police powers to enforce Title VII of the Ohio Revised Code. Wow. Which is the agricultural title. So yeah, you get full police powers. Um, and um, it's interesting because it is a public law enforcement position. Yeah. But they have given in the law that authority to a private non-profit, county humane society. Yeah, so it's a really interesting way to kind of like balance public and power, uh, public and private rather. Um, because I was sworn in by a judge, but then I was reporting to the board of directors of a private county Humane Society doing my job of public law enforcement.

Dog wardens, based upon an Ohio Attorney general opinion from a very long time ago, stated that Dog Wardens had full police powers. You can carry a gun, you can carry a badge, you can arrest somebody. Humane agents, because humane societies, they serve a government function, but they're not necessarily a government agency. But they are, the probate court says, Hey, you, you can, you can enforce these laws. So, um, the humane agent takes the case and hands it over to the county prosecutor and says, Hey, can we file these charges? The humane agent has, has far less authority. They have to go to the courts and ask for that. Um, a dog warden by, by law, by code, has has more authority. I'm like, Steffen, you know that I work as a humane agent when I'm a humane agent and I don't have those same powers. It does not say that. And, and we went through and we read the whole humane code, and we read through the Dog Warden code. I'm like, look, there's nothing in here that says it. Now, I think that your Humane Society board could say, okay, we're willing to take the liability on if you wanna use a concealed carry permit and carry, carry a firearm with you, but you're still just, you know, you're acting as, as a citizen.

I, I needed something that mattered too. I felt like such a failure. My marriage was done like I was working at the shelter and that was important. Like, it's always been the hands-on stuff, like when I ran the homeless shelter. I was there actually helping homeless people, like hands on. When I was doing the fundraising, I was doing it at a higher level and I didn't feel as fulfilled. Yeah. And then I went back and, and worked at the shelter. Uh, and I was doing admin stuff. I didn't feel as fulfilled. I put my boots on and I went out and actually knocked on doors and like took dogs off and chains and shit. All of a sudden that sense of fulfillment came back and I got hooked on it. Um, and I loved it so much.

I think that he went into the humane agent and trying to save the dogs first because it was gonna bring him popularity and it was gonna bring in people saying, oh, look at him, he's helping the dogs. But also it was less work than actually running a shelter and running it right, right? Because Rachel Finney kind of left him with a good running shelter. And I know because I went there, uh, once or twice with the Rascal Unit, we went there to do some spay and neuter for the community, and it seemed like it was running great. And then after she left, we never went back in. And I have to say I never heard the name Steffen Baldwin until 2014. So I even had no idea that he was the one running the Union County Humane Society.

I truly think that he was, was going to be let go from Union County Humane Society. So he had to create his own, um, place to, to beat his drum.

My name is Sara Winfield. I started out as a foster with Act Ohio. Steffen was involved in Big Brother's Big Sisters lunch Buddy program and had been my son's lunch buddy at Northwood Elementary. Maybe he never had a noble intention, but like, it's a, it was a progression. It started off with working at the Humane Society. And I don't think he was obviously on the up and up there. He wasn't doing anything wrong. I think that's the way he was working at the Humane Society. Um, the personality flaws were there. And then, you know, that's not good enough. He's not getting the attention that he wants in that role. Like, 'cause you know, he was around, people loved him. He was doing great, like, he was really good at fundraising then. Like he started all kinds of cool fundraisers and stuff. Um, I think there was the kayak with your pooch. There was like a spaghetti dinner thing about, um, spay-ghetti, no balls or something like that to raise money like, he'd have clever little taglines that would really draw people in. They had a dog washing fundraiser, so he had all these really cool fundraisers, but I don't think any of it was getting him enough attention.

So in November of 2011, he was sworn in as not only the executive director, which he was working as a full-time job, but he was now the humane agent, which he claimed he was going out and, uh, taking calls and, and things like that after work.

'Cause animals are defenseless and someone's gotta look out for 'em. And that's our job as the humane society is to look out for the animals.

Um, and so he was, you know, doing that. Then he claimed that, uh, Union County Board Humane Society was saying he was focusing too much on the animal cruelty aspect of it and wanted him to pull back and he didn't want to.

So my County Humane Society, where I was the director, when I got really hardcore about like taking in dogs and like actually, and, and horses and, and everything else, they got really nervous. The reason why they got nervous is, uh, there's a big divide usually between the agricultural community and the animal welfare community. It's usually you're on one side or the other. Right? And I was always kind of in the middle. I can get along with the farmers, I can get along with the, the animal welfare people. Like I didn't have this, like, it wasn't a big thing for me, but my board got really nervous because as I started taking in more horses and dogs from farmers, because they were abusing the shit out of them, they said, you know what? I think if you do this too much, it's gonna affect donations. The farmer's gonna get pissed off that you're out there taking all these animals and we're gonna lose money.

So shitty man. Right? 'cause that's our responsibility. Responsibility gets so politicized now.

And that that's our animals can't speak up for themselves. And I wasn't, I wasn't taking animals that didn't deserve to be taken. The judge agreed with me on every case. I have a 100% prosecution record. That's awesome. I didn't lose a single case. They never even went to full trial because I had so much evidence that once we got to the discovery phase, their lawyer's like, ah, he fucking got you dude. You should plead. Yeah. So like I won every case without even going to trial and they were like, ah, we don't wanna lose donations, so you shouldn't be so hardcore about this. And I was on fire, dude. I was like, yeah, I'm out. I got my boots on, I'm out doing something. I'm out in the field, like frozen cutting chains off of dogs and stuff. Like I felt alive, right? Yeah. Especially after my whole marriage went to shit and everything. So we had a big board meeting and they said, we don't want you to investigate animal cruelty.

Do you know if he was told, if it was ever told that he was unable to pursue animal cruelty cases?

They did not want him to be the humane agent. They wanted him to run the shelter and, and he had bragged about all this funding that he was gonna bring in. And that was, that was the primary, that was to be the primary focus of his job. But he really wanted to be out doing those cases. Yeah.

So it wasn't a matter of we don't want a humane agent. It is, we want you to do your job.

Right.

So that was his, uh, justification for, alright, I'm gonna, uh, open up my own Humane Society, uh, which is not easy to do again. But he was smart enough to understand the laws of Ohio, and you have to go through a probate court and show that there is a need for another Humane Society since they already had one there, which he did. And he used that, uh, that, you know, they don't wanna do cruelty investigations. They want him to focus more on just, you know, the, the day-to-day job and that he didn't feel that that was, you know, sufficient. Uh, and he couldn't accept that. And so he wanted to do his own Humane Society and do his own investigating.

I went to the judge. I was like, Hey, my Humane Society said this on record. They don't want me doing my job. So can I just start my own organization and just do it through my own organization?

And then, so that's how the Animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio was formed. So he had to do paperwork and go through a probate court to do that. And then in doing that, um, you know, he has to submit his resume there as well. Um, so, uh, so he does that and he goes through all this, all, all these steps. And then he gets approved to be the Animal Cruelty Taskforce, the second Humane Society in Union County, besides the Union County Humane Society, which is contracted with the county as its Humane society. Baldwin's ACT of Ohio was not, that was just his own. But Union County, so any, any dog that was to be found as a stray or anything like that were to go to Union County Humane Society. So, and then Baldwin, you know, was also still working as a Union County Humane Society humane agent. So even though he left as executive director, he was still the county humane agent. But now he got sworn in as the ACT Ohio Humane agent.

Now, sometime in January of 2014, you took over as Humane Agent for ACT Ohio?

That is correct. Uh, the, my, my Humane Agent appointment was transferred over. I was essentially unappointed, uh, by Ms. Eufinger in her office, uh, by the Honorable Judge Eufinger in her office, and then reappointed, um, through the Animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio as a Second County Humane Society, primarily because Union County Humane Society at that point went on record saying that they did not want to enforce animal cruelty laws because they were afraid it would hurt donations.

This is very complicated. So it's much easier to explain now, when I was going through it, it was just like, what the heck is going on here? Just hard to make heads or tails of, of, of all these different things that were going on. Um, and then, but then he, he used that, you know, he's the County Humane agent, but he mingled them together like he was for ACT. So most people thought that ACT Ohio was the Union County Humane Society, but it was not. But he talked as if it was, so he kind of represented Union County wrong because he would always say ACT, but he, he was two separate positions for him. You know, he was to work with Union County on any of the dogs, which he picked and choose what dogs he'd send there, or what dogs he kept. The dogs that, you know, if there was no story to it, those are the dogs that were gonna go to union County Humane Society. If there was publicity out of this dog, then that's the dog he was gonna bring to ACT Ohio and, and, and publicize and then, you know, create a buzz for it and, and donations. So his first year was 2014, and he started it with a, a, his girlfriend at the time was Shelby Grabor. So she had been with him prior to that. Um, and they were boyfriend, girlfriend, and, the first year, I don't really know that much about his first year. So this case really wasn't made that much with those first 18 months. But from what I can gather from the information I do have is that, you know, he was running it like a humane society.

So, um. This legal loophole said that, uh, "A", the word "a" in a county humane society said that the, the plural does not exclude the singular, and the singular does not exclude the plural. So a could mean more than one county humane society if the judge in that county says there's a need. So we had a big board meeting and they said, we don't want you to investigate animal cruelty. So I took the minutes to the board meeting, I went to the judge. I was like, Hey, my Humane Society said this on record. They don't want me doing my job. So can I just start my own organization and just do it through my own organization? She's like, I don't know. I've never heard of that. And I was like, well, I came prepared. Here's this legal decision from 20 years ago. I think you can. And she's like, let me research it. I'll call you back. So the judge calls me back, she's like, yeah, you can, you can do that. It's surprisingly easy actually. It shouldn't be so easy, but it is. So that's what I did. I formed my own, uh, county Humane Society, and I started doing the job that they wouldn't do. And, um, got a lot of publicity for that, you know, social media. I had to raise awareness. You know, we, we were all donation funded, so I had to go online and I had to tell my story. And, um, you know, uh, we got all kinds of traction. Everyone was like really interested, really engaged with what I was doing.

Would you state your name for the record please?

Matthew Smith.

Okay. And are you, you also aware of the Animal Cruelty Taskforce of Ohio?

I am.

And would you tell us, how do you know this organization? How, how are you familiar with it?

Um, I came familiar with it when it was first started. I was asked to assist in, in, um, helping him to get organized, uh, Mr. Baldwin to get organized with, uh, ACT Ohio, and attended one board meeting and after that I ended my engagement with, uh, with Act Ohio.

So, and, and if you would, what is the nonprofit that is in that certificate?

Uh, animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio.

What is this document, Matt, that we're looking at right now?

Uh, it's initial articles of incorporation for a domestic nonprofit.

Now we go down to the purpose for the organization. Do you mind? Do you see that there?

The purpose for which the corporation is formed is to work, uh, directly with rural Humane Societies formed under ORC 1717.05, assisting them with appointing and equipping qualified humane agents agents per the requirements under ORC 1717.06, and to ensure enforcement of animal cruelty laws defined under ORC 959 through the powers defined in ORC 1717.08.

And who are the listed incorporators? Just the names please.

Steffen Baldwin, Shelby Grabor and Matthew Smith.

And who was the original statutory agent?

Uh, Steffen Baldwin.

ACT was, um, a, a Humane Society within Union County. It was the second Humane Society and our focus was going to be more around the animal cruelty. And Steffen spent a lot of time and effort in trying to work with changing the laws because, um, in the law, in the state of Ohio, you can only investigate, um, cruelty within the county that you are, you reside in as a humane agent. And so ACT was supposed to, um, go across all of Ohio if we were able to get those laws changed. Um, and so that was what it was created for, was to do that and then also, um, try to assist, uh, rural counties that either didn't have humane agents or needed assistance. So that was the, the scope of my understanding of ACT.

So then he starts ACT Ohio with, uh, Shelby. And, um, during that time he also started like a grant writing business and that, you know, like that he was, you know, tooting his own horn about writing grants for like, um, some of our local charities. And ACT Ohio started off, he was just supposed to be investigating. There was, you know, he wasn't ever supposed to be taking dogs in. And that's like when I looked at the model of it, when I became involved, I'm like, why is he taking all these dogs in? Shouldn't, if he wants to run the way this is written, like the way he's written up what he wants to do, he should go out and investigate these animal cruelty cases, work on the charges with prosecutors. And I know that what he was trying to bring in so he could work in more counties besides Union. 'cause I mean, we're a small county, we're not getting that many. Like, why did he even start it? Because there's not that much animal cruelty in Union County. You might have, you know, the occasional case, but it's not enough to have a full-time job of it. So he starts trying to make this into a full-time job and when he doesn't have enough cases, he's trying to branch out.

One of the things that he would say is that as, as humane agent for ACT Ohio, he was able to basically be humane agent for any county and he would go to other places and just pretty much present himself as a humane agent with legal authority in those places. And that's not, that's not it, right?

Yeah. You have to be sworn in through your county. Um, he had agreements with like four different counties, but he had no authority to, to do, to go in there to do any investigation. Um, it was kind of a odd situation, 'cause he did have agreements, I think with like four different counties. We charged him for that in our case, for impersonating a peace officer. But that was only a misdemeanor. And that ended up, because the case took so long, it ended up getting dismissed because of statute of limitations, but, um, I did charge him with that. Even in Union County he was committing a crime 'cause he carried his gun. He was a humane agent. It's a 20 hour course. Nothing in there about carrying weapons or, uh, using deadly force he was to do dog cases and, at the time, child cases. For whatever reason that's all within that law. But he could do child cases or dog cases, that's it. but he only had the power to, um, you know, act if he saw, you know, a dog being neglected and that's it. Um, but he carried stun gun, he carried a firearm and he carried a badge and he presented himself as a law enforcement officer. Nobody questioned it. He got away with it. Um, but again, it goes to the disconnect between actual law enforcement and humane agents and what they can and can't do. And most police officers probably don't understand the role, don't understand what abilities they have or can do. So I, I understand that how easily that can get overlooked, and I wasn't until I started investigating this, you know, wasn't exactly sure, all I knew is that you know what I'm required and every year I have to qualify. For the state of Ohio, I have to do it through our department and, and if I don't, I lose my ability to carry a firearm. So I lose my ability to be a police officer. Now, any officer does. Okay, so if you're a humane agent and you're carrying a gun, common sense told me like, well, he needs to be qualified. If he's carrying a weapon, um, he has to qualify. If he's carrying deadly force, he need, he could do it, but he also needs permission either from his board or from, uh, you know, somebody in Union County, either the sheriff's department, maybe they can give him a commission, but you just can't carry a weapon. And he did. And he carried it as if he was a law enforcement officer. He was not. He was an agent of the state of Ohio. That did not give him any right to carry a weapon. Uh, he cannot physically arrest anybody. He would have to do it by summons or call the Sheriff's department and ask them to put somebody in, in handcuffs. Um, but he presented himself as if he was a law enforcement officer.

And that gun he bought through, um, Animal Cruelty Taskforce, Right? So it was, yes, realistically that gun was the property of the nonprofit.

And in the back of the truck was the Glock 21 in a Glock, uh, box, uh, like a locked Glock box. Eventually when I got the records, the financial records, I came across a site, uh, or, or statement, uh, of a gun purchase through ACT Ohio at a location called Build A Gun in Columbus, Ohio. So when you purchase things as a 501c3, you have to have a receipt of it. You know, it has to be for that 501c3. And then in Ohio, when any organization, you know stops existing as a 501c3, you're required by Ohio laws to then donate all of your property that you've bought or purchased, uh, your assets to other like charities. And if you don't do that, then you're required to present a list to the probate court in Union County, so then they can distribute it.

Article eight. The assets of the corporation are irrevocably dedicated to charitable and educational purposes. Upon the dissolution of the corporation, the assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of Section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code, or a corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government or to a state or local government for public purpose. Any such assets not so disposed of, shall be disposed of by a court of competent jurisdiction of the county in which the principal office of the corporation is then located exclusively for such purposes or to such organizations as said court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes.

Well, of course, of which he did none of that, all of that stuff, or not all of it, but a large majority of it was on that truck, which we didn't know at that time, including the gun that he had purchased with ACT Ohio money, um, was on that truck too as well, and that's the gun that he took to California. And it's the gun that we charged him, uh, with a theft of a firearm in which he was also convicted of. There's pictures that he took that he would send in messengers. He would have a, a bag of weed on the seat, and his badge and the gun, and it would all be sitting on there. And he'd be on messaging somebody he was interested in and saying, I'm coming back from Akron, Ohio, and he was getting high. And they'd be like, be careful. You, you're driving, you know, you've gotta watch out and you might get stopped by the police. And what I took that is, is, well, I've got a badge and a gun, you know, I'm not, they're not gonna do anything to me. But he did not have authority to carry a gun and act as a peace officer when he was not. So just through his financial records, you could see staying at hotels and spending all this money and doing different things as probably early, early on, first, second, third month, he started doing this. And then he was paying himself expenses for mileage. So not only was he using money financially, he was paying himself a salary, he was paying himself expenses. Then he was using all that money to, to fund on his personal life. And then, on top of that, you know, he and Shelby Grabor were getting salaries and they had gotten a lot of donations off first, and then they had gone through all of that money in like, August. So they paid themselves out like $55,000 in salaries through August, between the two. Um, and then from that point on, um, is when he started spending almost the majority of the donations on himself. And he met you at that same time? I wanna say, was that May of '14?

Of '14, yes. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So that's when you had started your partnership with him.

So I first met Steffen around May of 2014, and we were both invited to present at a seminar, and my presentation was on the clinical signs, the problems that animals rescued from like puppy mill, hoarding cases are going to have. And then his presentation was on his role as a humane officer. And you know, from what he said, it called to me just because I was starting to get into forensics. I was starting to wanna do animal cruelty type cases. And what he said was kind of like the, the perfect addition to what I was doing, right? Because as a veterinarian, I can't go and, you know, investigate cases on my own, but I can provide support. As I saw it, he could provide the boots on the ground as he said it, to investigate these cases, and then myself as a veterinarian, I would be evaluating the animals, providing medical care, and then writing reports so that I could assist with the prosecutions. Uh, at the end of that seminar, I walked up to him and, and I told him, "Hey, I think that, that we could collaborate, that it could be something really cool." And he, of course was immediately let's talk, let's, let's get this going. So that's how everything started. Everything started with just wanting to do something better for the animals in Ohio.

He would surround him with himself, with people that would make him look good and clean up his messes. That's exactly what we were doing. We, we were like cleaning up the messes for him and making him look good.

Now, it wasn't long before he started bringing us stuff. In June really, we started communicating and then in July he brought us his first rescue, which was a dog named Dually from Muskingum County.

I did not know Steffen Baldwin personally. However, um, I did know of him because he had rescued a dog that I was very interested in named Dually. So I had, followed him on Facebook once I found out that he had rescued Dually. And I also, um, did message him about Dually and I, uh, actually talked to him one time on the phone. Dually originated from the Muskingum pound, and was rescued by a lady named Gail who was from Union County. Dually, had I'm, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention he had a huge tumor on his leg. We were afraid he was gonna be euthanized at the dog pound because another reason dogs might, would, would be euthanized is if they had major health problems. So he was, he was on the euth list, Dually was, and he, um, but the, uh, Gail came and rescued him. She said she was gonna get his tumor removed. So we started following to find out if she had, you know, that that was happening. And we were getting concerned because we were trying to call the vets to find out, we couldn't find out anything about Dually having an operation. And that was May of 2014. In July of 2014, we were excited to find out that our dog warden had received a call from Steffen, and that's the first I'd ever heard of Steffen at that point. That, um, he was humane officer officer and he called our dog warden and said that, had possession of Dually, had taken Dually from, um, Gail, uh, because of, I said neglect is how I understood it. And he was going to take care of the tumor on Dually's legs. So we volunteers were so relieved to find out that, um, that Dually was going to get the care that we had assumed he was going to get from Gail.

And who was Dually?

Uh, he was a dog that I fostered. Um, and originally came from ACT Ohio. Um, I got involved with him through the rescue I was involved with Open Hearts Bully Rescue. He had just had a mass removed from his leg. He had a cone on his head and had to keep him kind of quiet if possible.

And, um, what if, you know, did Dually have any behavioral issues?

Uh, he had a resource guarding issue.

And

were you aware of that when he was brought to you? Yes, Amanda told me that.

What was Dually like?

Um, for the most part, he was a pretty happy go lucky dog. Um, he had his issues with the food, which could have been pretty scary at times. Um, he most of the time got along with my other dogs, but he did have, um, a problem with my male dog. He, he kind of attacked him a couple times. The food resource I kinda worked with him on, um, trying to slowly when you put his dish on the, on the ground, on the floor, you had to leave the room. If you went back in the room or you got close to him, he would attack you. So I worked on that by maybe giving him hot dogs and getting close to the pan. Um, I could hand feed him, but like I said, once you put the food on, on the floor, if you just left him alone. I would reach out with him about the, um, how to handle him attacking my other dog, Dually, attacking my other dog. Um, I really didn't get any help with that. I took him through obedience training and I got his good canine citizens certificate. Amanda had asked me to take him through the obedience training. And when we, Dually and I, finished the, the training, they offered up the certificate to test for the certificate, so I went ahead and did that.

What, if any, um, funds did ACT Ohio pay for for Dually's uh, Canine Good Citizenship Certificate?

None that I know of, 'cause I paid for it.

I was. Slightly concerned because, or some somewhat concerned because after Dually had, um, his tumor removed and it was posted and we had, um, been following Dually and, and there had been posts about Dually's rehabilitation, how he was doing. We could not find, there was a point in time where we couldn't find out any information about Dually anymore.

Did you adopt Dually?

I adopted him from Amanda. I didn't know who to turn to, who owned it. I, I would ask Amanda and she, she would say, well, Steffen's never signed over paperwork to me. So he's really Steffen's dog. I run into Steffen or message Steffen, and Steffen would say he's Amanda's dog. I was concerned when both the rescues closed down. Um, that's what made me want to adopt him, because I didn't want to get involved with another rescue. I didn't want Dually to be given to another foster or a person like that, 'cause he had just been settled into my house, so I didn't want him to have to do that all over again.

How did you feel about Dually?

I love Dually.

And I'm sorry to ask this, but what, what happened? You said he passed away in 2019?

Yeah, he, um, he started out with renal failure, which we managed, and then in December of 2018, he ended up getting leptospirosis, which really hurts the kidneys. And so he just really never bounced back from that and just continued to get worse until he passed away in September. I contacted him to let him know what his condition was and he was soon to pass. At first he was concerned, and then the opinion I got from the conversation was he, he kind of, I don't know the exact words, but he kind of, in a roundabout, we way said, are you wanting me to pay for this?

After Dually came a dog named Evelyn. Evelyn was found as a stray in Marion County with a bad wound on her front leg. A lady adopted her but she could not afford the amputation surgery. Steffen reached out and brought her to the Rascal Animal Hospital to have the surgery done. Next, still in Marion, Steffen reached out about a lady with multiple little dogs, living in a hoarding-type situation and needing help. The lady said that the dogs would get into fights and one dog killed another. We drove our Rascal Unit vehicle to the location, evaluated the dogs, brought them back to the Rascal Animal Hospital where they received care, baths, and where they stayed for a few days until they could be placed.

Who had the idea for the first collaboration?

Um, I think it was somewhat of a joint idea. Um, I had said about how we had some money through Rascal Charities to do some high volume cases, and that I was waiting to do the, you know, find the right case to do it. And then he presented a case that he had that would've, that fit perfect with what. We were trying to do.

Okay, doctor, and I wanna ask you how much money, if you remember, back in 2014, I think this is, um, I'm looking at the dates. Um, how much money did you have to spend in Rascal Charities Fund?

For that, for that purpose, we had about $5,000.

Okay. And when you say for that purpose, what were, what were you able to use that money for?

So we had reserved that money for, again, like high volume cases. So, uh, particularly I'm very interested in hoarding and animal hoarding, so I wanted to utilize it for some, um, you know, high volume animal hoarding cases.

So Steffen presented a case. He said that he had the perfect case that there were these three ladies in Marion that had a lot of cats and that he had been working with them for approximately about a year. Bringing them food, bringing them litter, and kind of helping them out. And that they would not allow him into the house, but he could smell the urine from like the sidewalk. Um, so he knew there were a lot of cats. He didn't know exactly how many, and he wanted me to go with him and see if I could talk to them and evaluate the situation. See if, you know, it's, it's a case that we could help. So I went to the house with Steffen, uh, to meet these people and he knocks on the door and the, and the lady opens the door and he said, you know, he introduces me and says, Hey, this is the veterinarian that I was talking to you. Can she come in and talk to you about the cats? And she was so excited to see me. Like there was no hesitation. She was like, yes, please come in. And she showed me the house and the state in which they were living. It was horrendous, like the smell of, of urine. The floors were sticky. There was just urine and feces everywhere. There were so many cats. And these three older ladies, uh, mother and two daughters. They thought they had about 30 to 40 cats. There were cats everywhere. The other thing that was sad about this, I mean, these were overwhelmed caregivers. The mom explained to us how she started with one cat and she only had the one cat after her husband had passed, and then she got in another cat and then it started having litters, and from there it just exploded. So these three women are living with this smell, the stickiness and all of that. And they didn't even have a bedroom that they could sleep in. There was a bed with a mattress in the living room. And then there was a couch where one slept and then a recliner where the other one slept. So everything was just horrible. Even like their laundry, their washer and dryer was not usable. They had a second floor that they couldn't go up to because the steps were just caked with feces, and they had cats in cages that they were keeping separate because they thought the cats were in heat and if they kept them separate, they were keeping, they would keep 'em from having babies. Uh, so it was just a really, really sad, overwhelmed, caregiver type of hoarding situation. Um. But they were so receptive to help, the mom more so than the daughters. I told the mom that we wanted to help, that we wanted to come in spay and neuter all the cats so that we would stop the problem. And the mom said that, yes, she did not want that many cats. So the plan would be we come in with our mobile unit and we're going to spay and neuter and vaccinate everybody, and then we can leave them with a workable number of animals. Um, again, she thought that there were about 30 to 40 cats. So come actual rescue day. There were about 74 cats and she had, she had no idea. And there were about 14 cats that she said died in the period between us going there the first time and then coming into the actual clinic, which was only two weeks. So we show up, I bring our truck, we bring an extra doctor, we bring our techs, we bring staff. And then, Steffen's job was basically to come in, bring some volunteers, help with grabbing the cats and bringing them to the truck, and then finding them a place to go. We show up, we get everything set up, and one of the first things he says to me is

So we have an actual plan. Okay, now I have to find homes for all of them. This is Tabby and.

Now I gotta figure out where these cats are gonna go and starts laughing. Kinda like giggling and I'm thinking it's not funny, right? So you have one job. Your job is to find these cats somewhere to go. Like we are providing all the veterinary care, we're providing all the medical care, we are spending money on the vaccines, on the surgery, on everything else. We are paying for this whole thing. And you just have to show up, help us wrangle some cats and then find them a place to go. So we start, you know, going through the rescue, we start bringing animals into the truck, uh, doing the surgeries. And then about halfway through the day, he comes in and says, Hey, it's all taken care of. We have transport for the cats. And I was like, oh, okay. So that sounds great. And then somebody from the clinic calls and says, Hey, so. What are we doing with these cats? His idea of transport, he took all of the cats, put 'em in transport, and brought them to the Rascal Animal Hospital, which we did not have the space for 70 something cats, right? So, he's bringing us all these cats. Um, there were out of, and actually out of the 74, there were six that were euthanized at the time because they were just very feral, and they bit during the process. Who did they bite? They bit Steffen during the process because he didn't really know how to wrangle cats.

I just wanna get my rabies shot.

My

God. How? Here, here, here. Here, here, here, here.

Those

are all bites. Here. Here. This is a scratch For the rest are bites.

You need to stop doing that.

Well, I wanna get the fuck outta here.

All of these cats show up at my hospital and my staff is putting them in crates. And I mean this, this many cats, we did not have that much room. So they're putting multiple cats in a cage, which we normally wouldn't do. Having to give 'em litter, food, water. It's a lot for the staff on top of all of the clients and patients that we have to see regularly. We were a 24 hour emergency hospital, so we were super busy. We were a walk-in clinic, so people were just constantly coming in. So he's putting all that burden on us. The part that he was supposed to do. And who's paying for this because he wasn't paying for the boarding and Rascal Charities wasn't going to pay for animals that weren't supposed to be there. So we got stuck with these cats for about three to five days before finally he said that he was able to find them somewhere to go. Um, however. He didn't, he didn't help us raise any funds towards, uh, this case. And, you know, it just did not go as, as we hoped it would. However, later on we found out that he did raise money for this. He just didn't feel like sharing.

He kept it all, a year later he publicized that on a GoFundMe and brought in a couple thousand dollars from it and, and just didn't share. You didn't even know about it.

I didn't even know that he had done that. Like, that was, yeah. So yeah, that was a surprise when you brought that up to my attention. Now, September was pretty quiet, um, because we had several fundraisers. So the first thing was we had a booth at the Dublin Pet Fair and Steffen made sure to make an appearance. He had his own booth, but then he came over to our booth for some photo ops. And then, uh, later on in the month, we had an event, uh, that we used to have a guest griller event at the BD's Mongolian Barbecue. And the late Bob Nunley, um, from NBC four used to be a co griller. We would have this grilling battle. Um, but Steffen did not show up, even though he said that he was going to, that was the first time that we should have understood that if it wasn't for him. He was not interested in participating.

I would find a hard time finding any situation that he was straight up in that, you know, he doesn't lie every second of his, of his mouth, but there's not something he was involved in that he did. He lied. If he was involved in something, he was lying. It was about something. There was some lie in there. There was something that he was manipulating or that he wanted to gain. And, and those three, those several things were one, he wanted popularity, he wanted fame. Okay? So if he can get that out of something that was being thrown at him, he was gonna take it. He wanted money. Um, so if he can get some money from something, some opportunity, somebody to help a dog, this or that, he was gonna take it. And then, uh, women, if he could get a woman from it somehow, uh, because he was a womanizer, um, and many women were throwing themselves at him. But if one of those three things, fame, popularity, attention, social media, popularity of post, fame, money, uh, women, and he was all in. If he could not get any of those things, then he didn't, he didn't touch it. He didn't want anything to do with it.