Tuesday, August 18, 2009



A trial that was set to begin Monday for Carolina Polo and Carriage Co. was moved to later in the week.

City officials cited Carolina Polo for six code violations earlier this summer following an inspection of five carriage tour operators. The company received five more citations for allegedly not meeting deadlines for improvements.

Carolina Polo's attorney requested a jury trial at a July hearing, though both he and a city attorney said they expected to find a resolution prior to Monday's court date.

The new start date was not available Monday.

“Dr.” Malark was called to testify about how the Knoth’s care for their horses. Malark stated he has worked for them 15 years and stated the Knoth’s have experience that comes with taking care of numerous horses, hundreds of them. Malark said all Knoth’s horses were in “good shape” and “the animals are not an issue”. Malark told Judge Molony the care for polo ponies doesn’t differ much with the care of draft horses. When Judge Molony asked how many horses had died in the last 3 years, Malark replied maybe “2 or 3”. When Judge Molony asked how or why they had died, Malark stated some can die from old age leading to hoof problems, some horses die from colic.
I really hate to out and out call someone a liar but Malark really seems confused about the care provided by the Knoths, how many horses died and the cause of their deaths. How do five horses in less than 2 years die if the proper care is provided? Read the story.
http://davidfarrow.wordp...%80%a6-before-they-die/
If “Dr.” Malark believes this to be proper care, I for one wouldn’t allow him to care for my horses. I think horse owners in Charleston should ask themselves the same question. I think the other carriage companies that use Malark should ask themselves this question also.
I have been asking the authorities since June to help a horse named Montague. He seemed to be foundering and the Knoth’s once again were denying vet care. He was on a large cocktail of drugs back in June just so he could walk. After the subcommittee meeting on August 12th, I was by the barn and to my dismay, I saw Montague pulling a carriage. The driver repeatedly was telling Montague “step up Montague, step up”. Even though the carriage was empty Montague was visibly struggling to pull it on a flat surface. With tears streaming from my eyes, I followed him down the street until he turned around to pick up customers. The whole time Montague was bobbing his head dramatically up and down with each step (horse people understand this is a sign of lameness). While the passengers were loading, I was able to get close enough to take pictures of his short hooves and numerous wounds. I looked in Montague’s eyes and they seemed lifeless. You could tell he was drugged.
With passengers loaded, the driver once again started pushing Montague to step up. I am not one of these activists but I couldn’t contain myself, I said “he can’t go any faster, he hurts, he’s foundering… can’t you all see he hurts? Someone help him, he hurts.” The driver and passengers just looked at me crying as Montague bravely pulled them down the road. I kept thinking, is this historic Charleston that the city wants to promote to tourists? A malnourished and drugged draft horse struggling to haul tourists down the road? How embarrassing to the other companies and the city.
I sent an email with pictures to the Mayor, City Council, CPD, the media… anyone who I thought would listen. I firmly believe if there isn’t an intervention on Montague’s behalf, he will be the next to die. It is my understanding that a vet from Summerville checked Montague and pulled his blood but I don’t know the results yet. I am praying Montague will be saved. This is what the Knoth’s and “Dr.” Malark consider to be “horses in good shape”. This is a horse that Molony suggests the Knoth’s use to pull children around our city. I hope for the children’s sake that Montague doesn’t collapse on the city streets as other horses have done owned by Carolina Polo and Carriage Company.

http://archives.postandc...299/arc1225244537.shtml
Carriage horse put down after collapsing
Published on 12/25/99
BY ELLEN B. MEACHAM
The Post and Courier
A veterinarian had to put down a carriage horse that collapsed Friday in the Historic District and blocked traffic for more than two hours.
At around 1 p.m., a Belgian draft horse, "Charlie," was pulling a Carolina Polo and Carriage Co. carriage with several passengers when he began limping on his left leg, passenger Ken O'Connell said.
When the passengers got on the carriage, the horse seemed sweaty and soon began staggering, O'Connell said. The driver unhooked the horse from the carriage and tried to get him to walk, but the horse kept stumbling and went down at the corner of Queen and State streets, according to O'Connell.
The 2,000-pound horse lay heaving and groaning as carriage company officials tried to get him on his feet and to the barn.
Police and animal control officers arrived and blocked off the streets while tourists, last-minute Christmas shoppers and residents gathered, expressing concern.
Some onlookers objected to efforts to get the horse to stand and urged those working on the horse to call a veterinarian, O'Connell said.
At about 2:15 p.m., veterinarian Travis Meredith of Edisto Equine Clinic arrived and began treatment. She said they continued efforts to get the horse on its feet because large horses cannot lie down for long because their weight presses on their organs.
For more than an hour, as many as 10 men struggled to help the distressed horse stand, but they were not successful.
The horse's condition deteriorated, and at 3:30 p.m. police ordered onlookers back while Meredith put the horse down.
Bobby Knoth of the Carolina Polo and Carriage Co. said veterinarian John Malark of Edisto Equine Clinic will do an autopsy to discover why the horse died.
"There could be a lot of reasons why he went down. Sometimes their muscles tie up, they get colicky or even an aneurysm. It's not obvious right now," Malark said.
The horse was 15 years old, which is about middle age for a horse, he said.
Charleston City Animal Control Officers Marwan Marzagao and Marcus Grant took statements from several witnesses.
Marzagao said they would wait for the veterinarian's report before continuing their investigation.

http://archives.postandc...100/arc0104247185.shtml
Horse's autopsy inconclusive
Published on 01/04/00
BY ROBERT BEHRE
The Post and Courier
An autopsy on the carriage horse that recently died in downtown Charleston found no evidence of abuse, but it also failed to yield a conclusive cause of death, a veterinarian said.
"There's a reason to continue the investigation. We can't hang anything on the medical findings," said John Malark of Edisto Equine Clinic.
On Christmas Eve, a Belgian draft horse named Charlie began limping on his left leg, then collapsed at Queen and State streets. A veterinarian tended the horse for about two hours and then put him down.
Malark said the 15-year-old horse's lungs, liver, intestines and heart were all normal.
"The only thing that was abnormal was skeletal muscle," he said. That damage could have occurred after the horse fell to the ground, or it could be a sign that he suffered from exertional rahabdomyolsis or "tying up," a severe cramping condition that can be fatal in horses.
"There's certainly no evidence of maltreatment or abuse or neglect or any of that sort of thing," Malark said.
A spokesman for the city's animal control division of the police department said Monday the investigation of the incident was on hold pending further information from the veterinarian's report.
Malark said Monday he had not had a chance to share the autopsy results with the city's animal control or with the owners of Carolina Polo and Carriage Co. He said further clues about what happened could be gleaned from talking to the carriage driver and those who cared for the horse.

“Sporadic tying up is seen in horses that have always exercised normally, but suddenly exhibit signs of tying up. It can be due to; exercise in excess of training level: exhaustive exercise: respiratory infections: lack of dietary selenium/vitamin E or lack of dietary electrolytes and minerals. These horses usually recover with rest, adjustment of the diet treatment, gradual return to exercise and go on to perform successfully.”
Stephanie J. Valberg, D.V.M., Ph.D.
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Minnesota

Do the causes sound familiar to anyone else. Dr. Malark insists that these horses are taken care of while Dr. Hayek found that they were mineral and salt deficient. Respiratory infections could be caused by Carolina Polo's practice of cleaning the stalls:
1. Clean out what is left of the uneaten manure.
2. Pull out the rubber mat.
3. Spray the area with water.
4. Put the rubber mat back in the stall.
5. Pour ONE GALLON of bleach on the rubber mat.
6. Put a half a bag of shavings on the bleach to soak it up.
7. Put the horse back in the stall to eat the bleach soaked shavings.

All this so the people eating dinner next door at Hank's don't have to smell the urine. Remember that as you patron this restaurant. Horses are breathing chlorine gas so you can enjoy dinner.

COPYRIGHT 2001 The Post and Courier. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Evening Post Publishing Company by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: JIM PARKER

Convicted businessman Knoth sought

to serve jail time in special program

Charleston businessman Robert R. Knoth has filed a lawsuit saying he's a victim of age discrimination for being denied the chance to serve his bankruptcy fraud sentence in a special program in a Lewisburg, Pa., penitentiary.

Knoth, 56, had planned to participate in an "intensive confinement center" program at Lewisburg - whose noted prisoners over the years included Alger Hiss, convicted of perjury in a 1950s spy case.

But when he arrived on Dec. 4, 2000, the staff said he couldn't take part because the program was geared toward providing discipline and moral standing for "young men."

He was transferred instead to the Edgefield prison in western South Carolina. Knoth filed the suit in federal court last month without the assistance of an attorney. Knoth is asking that he be released immediately to a halfway house or be allowed to go home where he can be supervised. That way, Knoth said, he can "receive the benefits of intense counseling."

The special confinement program was limited to prisoners who were 35 years old or younger. But officials waived that requirement in 1997, Knoth said.

In August 2000, U.S. District Judge Falcon B. Hawkins sentenced Knoth to a 21-month prison sentence and two years of supervision stemming from the personal bankruptcy of Knoth's $12 million estate in the mid-1990s.

Knoth pleaded guilty in February 1999, admitting he converted $113,000 in checks and other funds to his use over a two-year period. The money was supposed to go toward the reorganization of his debts under bankruptcy.

At Knoth's sentencing hearing, prosecutors cited his conduct during the bankruptcy proceedings, including selling a Mercedes without court permission and denying that he had two polo ponies he was supposed to turn over to the court.

Knoth's defense included that he suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder, which kept him from thinking straight. Character witnesses included U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings and Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr.

Soon after the sentencing, Knoth, with the backing of the court, sought to enroll in the Lewisburg program. He said he got a notice from the Bureau of Prisons to report to the Pennsylvania penitentiary by Oct. 23. Because the next program didn't start until Dec. 9, the parties involved agreed to postpone his report date until then.

Knoth said the program administrator explained to the court that while he met the program's criteria of being a nonviolent, first-time offender, he did not fit the age requirement.

Bob Daley, chief of the civil division for the U.S. Attorney's office in Columbia, said the office has not been served notice of the lawsuit.
COPYRIGHT 2001 The Post and Courier. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Evening Post Publishing Company by the Gale Group, Inc.

Knoth gets 21-month sentence
Published on 08/18/00
BY JIM PARKER
The Post and Courier

A judge sentenced Robert R. Knoth on Thursday to 21 months in prison for fraud and money laundering in the bankruptcy of Knoth's $12 million estate in the mid-1990s.

"It's a sad day," said U.S. District Judge Falcon Hawkins. "I have to admit I do not understand his actions."

Knoth, with his wife and three grown children behind him, rubbed his eyes but showed little emotion when Hawkins handed down the sentence, the minimum under federal sentencing guidelines.

"I apologize this happened. I think it's devastating," Knoth told the judge at the sentencing. "I didn't intend to create the problem. I tried in my mind to be a good person."

Sally Knoth, who has been married to Knoth for 30 years, said the family has been through an ordeal in the eight years since the financial troubles started.

"I know he has to leave," she said. "My love for him has never faltered and never will. He has a kind heart. He has made mistakes."

Before the sentencing, Hawkins denied Knoth's request that the judge give him probation or otherwise reduce the term. Federal guidelines call for between 21 and 27 months for the offenses.

He did recommend that Knoth, 56, serve his sentence at a minimum security prison in Estill so Knoth could be near his family.

"It was a correct sentence under the law. It was a just sentence under the circumstances of the case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew R. Hubbell said after the sentencing.

Knoth entered his guilty plea in February 1999 as part of an agreement with prosecutors. He admitted converting $113,000 in checks and other funds to his use over a two-year period. The money was supposed to go toward the reorganization of his debts under bankruptcy.

The sentencing followed two days of testimony and arguments last week.

In a bid to get Knoth's sentence reduced, his lawyers sought to portray Knoth as a caring family man who couldn't think straight due to Attention Deficit Disorder but who redeemed himself by starting a successful carriage business in 1996.

"He was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth," Knoth's lawyer Robert B. Wallace said. "Now, here he is with a shovel of manure in his hand."

The prosecution, in turn, offered evidence that Knoth knew what he was doing all along and had chances to make amends but ignored them or failed to cooperate. (like with the city's ordinances concerning carriage horse care)

Further, prosecutors said, Knoth managed to maintain a wealthy lifestyle even while in debt. He denied having two polo ponies he was supposed to turn over to the bankruptcy court and kept his membership current in the Carolina Yacht Club, they said.

"Out in the real world, polo ponies and the Yacht Club are not the necessities of life," Hubbell said.

According to testimony, Knoth inherited a $23 million estate in the 1980s upon the deaths of his mother and father - who oversaw income-producing plantations worldwide. Wallace said the inheritance was "like a birthright."

Over the years, Knoth managed land and bought businesses, including a farm tractor dealership and a fast-food franchise. The family lived south of Broad Street and owned 24 polo ponies.

But by the early 1990s, the financial fortunes had soured. Knoth filed for personal bankruptcy in November 1993, and various businesses also sought bankruptcy protection. His estate was estimated at $12 million to $15 million.

"It is obvious to me the thread of Knoth's condition started on the day of his inheritance to the day he plead guilty, a thread of impaired capacity," Wallace said.

The prosecution, though, said Knoth masterminded a scheme to defraud the bankruptcy court.

John F. Curry, trustee for Knoth's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, testified that Knoth was told from the beginning "there must be no transfer, change of assets, records destroyed." Knoth said he understood the rules, Curry testified.

Yet during the bankruptcy, prosecutors said, Knoth illegally took money for his own use in 37 separate transactions. The money included checks for rental properties he was permitted to manage, a check from a farm credit bank and income from billboard rentals.

Knoth stashed funds in accounts at a local bank that Curry uncovered only after subpoenaing all the banks in town. Knoth also sold a Mercedes car without permission using a duplicate title. Curry testified that he had the original title in his possession.

He also received a commission on a land sale - against court orders - by inducing a third party to borrow money to pay Knoth with.

"It wasn't the smartest scheme in the world but it worked for two years," Hubbell said.

Wallace said the case reminded him of "Gone with the Wind," comparing Robert Rhett Knoth to the fictional Scarlett O'Hara, who persevered to save her plantation Tara.

In 1996, Knoth got a $35,000 loan from a neighbor that he repaid to start Carolina Polo and Carriage Co. It now employs 21 people.

"Like Scarlet, he made something from the ruins of this disaster," Wallace said.

Earlier, Knoth's family, friends and associates - including Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and U.S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings - testified in support.

"Five years ago, I saw him stretched to the limit," said Hank Holliday, who developed the Planters Inn next to Knoth's carriage company. "I saw bit by bit on a daily basis, Bobby Knoth reach down deep inside him to help his family, be a good citizen and start a business."

Meanwhile, a forensic psychologist testified that Knoth's adult ADD made it difficult for him to concentrate and could explain his lapses in financial matters. (And, now, perhaps his lapses in basic horse care, such as what they were fed or whether they died)

Dr. C. Barton Saylor said people with ADD act by impulse instead of trial and error, and have a magical belief that luck will bail them out of jams.

In response to supportive testimony about Knoth's character, the prosecution said it presented testimony from a female undercover Charleston County Sheriff's narcotics agent alleging a December 1995 meeting with Knoth in which a profit-splitting drug deal was discussed. There apparently was no further contact after the meeting. Knoth was never charged, Hubbell said.

Knoth's lawyer Capers Barr also said there's no evidence that Knoth resorted to drugs.

Hubbell said Knoth's financial misdeeds went on even as he testified in 1995 in the investigation of bank fraud at Citadel Federal Savings Bank involving Charles D. "Pug" Ravenel and others.

Knoth lost much of his fortune through investments with Ravenel, but he also made some money funneling illegal loans from the floundering thrift to associates of Ravenel, according to testimony in the Citadel Federal cases.

Knoth and three other "straw borrowers" got immunity from prosecution to testify how they borrowed money and loaned it to others for cash fees. Knoth has said he thought the transactions were legal.

Ravenel pleaded guilty in 1995 to conspiring to get others to secretly borrow $70,000 for him that was never repaid. He also admitted taking part in a check-kiting scheme. U.S. District Judge Sol Blatt Jr. gave him 11 months in prison. The judge said at the time of the sentencing that he had received an unprecedented number of letters on Ravenel's behalf.

ED:Jim Parker covers banking, insurance and investments. Contact him at 937-5542 or at jparker@postandcourier.com. Richard Green Jr. of The Post and Courier contributed to this article.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about the neglect of horses. In doing so, I was seeking to punish no one. I was searching for a way for the situation to end.
I believe it has.
I respond in the comments section of different sites, and I have shouted from the rooftops that the situation is solved. Move on, there’s nothing else to see here.
I am one of the original drivers for two of the carriage companies. Back then, the drivers took care of the barn – we did stalls, we fed. Star tour guide and idiot alike, we took care of these animals as if our lives depended on it.
It did.
Although I haven’t driven carriages for 23 years, I can’t imagine the dynamic has changed much. It makes no sense to abuse animals.
I know the principals at all the companies. They are glad this is over. Let’s move on.
Brian Hicks has it right in his column.
What do you think?

WE all need to keep a close eye on the horse carriage business in Charleston. Hopefully Bobby Knoth has realized he cannot mistreat his horses any more and get away with it, regardless of his close ties to Joe Riley and his gnomes and minions.