Leachman given 10 days to move horses

BILLINGS, Mont, (AP) – A Billings rancher who is charged with animal cruelty has been given 10 days to remove dozens of horses from land east of Billings where the animals have no access to water.

During a Justice Court hearing Wednesday, James Leachman pleaded not guilty to an eighth misdemeanor count of animal cruelty for failing to adequately care for horses found starving on tribal land and on ranch land Leachman lost in a federal foreclosure sale.

The Crow Tribe rounded up the trespassing horses and auctioned more than 800 of them earlier this month. Leachman's son, Seth, successfully bid on 66 horses. Three days later, James Leachman paid $33,000 for the horses. Yellowstone County prosecutors say he released them and another 10 horses on land where they have no access to water.