NY animal sanctuary owner accused of stealing cows walks free after twist in high-steaks case

From “prime evidence” to prime rib.

The charges against an upstate animal sanctuary owner accused of stealing a cop’s cows were dropped Thursday because the bovines were slaughtered — destroying the high-steaks evidence.

The udderly wild petit larceny case against Tracy Murphy was tossed by a judge after the state trooper who pressed charges against her sold the case’s four-legged linchpins, defense lawyer Justin Marceau told The Post.

The case against Murphy— a vegan landowner who saves livestock from the dinner plate — also unraveled because its supervising investigator is the brother-in-law of the cows’ purported owner, Trooper Scott Gregson.

“The investigation really stinks. I’m blaming this really on the investigation. It was disappointing. [The senior investigator] shouldn’t have had anything to do with it,” Judge Gary Strenkoski said at a pretrial hearing on Wednesday.

The barnyard beef first broke out on July 16, 2022, when a pair of cows moseyed onto Murphy’s property in the rural town of Newfane, according to a timeline provided by the defense.

Murphy took in the cows – whom she named Ishmael and Little Willow – and alerted the SPCA about the loose cattle.

A week later, Gregson contacted Murphy, claimed that he owned the cows and said he’d pick them up a few days later.

When he showed up with law enforcement, Murphy refused to hand them over —saying she had a valid lien on the animals after caring for them for 10 days. Ultimately, he pressed charges and got the animals back.

But the state’s case came apart Wednesday, when Strenkoski suppressed all evidence related to the cows due to failures in the New York State Police investigation.

Despite a warrant that required that the cows be preserved as “prime evidence,” they  were sold and slaughtered roughly one month before they could be inspected by the defense, said  Marceau, of the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project.

“We had been seeking that evidence since the day the cows were last seen [in 2022], saying we needed a chance to examine them, have ownership proven,” he said.

“Yesterday, in court, the assistant district attorney said it was her belief that the cows may have been destroyed about a month after they were taken back.”

The case’s dismissal was a massive relief for Murphy, Marceau said.

“The moment we got the dismissal…I had my arm on her, and she was tearing up. It was a great day in that regard,” he told The Post.

Both the prosecution and the defense claimed that they only learned of the questionable relationship between Gregson and the supervising investigator on Monday, two days before the hearing. The prosecution and Gregson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Text messages between Gregson and the SPCA were also suspiciously deleted, despite orders that they be disclosed, a spokesperson for the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project said.

The dust-up garnered national attention, and even caught the eye of actor Joaquin Phoenix, earlier this year.

As the cop and the vegan duked it out, Murphy went on Facebook Live to discuss her frustrations over the issue, which she considered a violation of her civil rights, according to the New York Times

Murphy, who owns Asha Farm Sanctuary, also shared Gregson’s home address and phone number with her followers.

Within a few days, Gregson claimed he was receiving phone calls threatening to rape and kill his children, according to court documents filed in Niagara County.

Locals in the rural, farm-heavy area rallied around Gregson. On July 31, they staged a raucous protest outside the animal sanctuary that included signs with taunting phrases like “Nacho Cows!” and “Heifer Hider,” the New York Times reported.

Some protesters even set up a large grill on Murphy’s property line and cooked steaks – seemingly to taunt her devout veganism, the outlet said.

“I was afraid for my life,” Murphy told the paper of the conflict.

The police finally returned to Asha Farm Sanctuary on Aug. 2 with a warrant.

The cows – whom Gregson called Hornee and Blackee  – were confiscated, and Murphy was arrested.

She was initially charged with one count of grand larceny, with a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

In May, she rejected a plea deal that would have her plead guilty to disorderly conduct in exchange for a suspended sentence.

The deal would have required Murphy to give a statement disavowing her decision to take in and care for the two cows, which she felt would be dishonest, the Niagara Gazette reported.

While many residents of Newfane expressed frustration about Murphy and her mission, actor Joaquin Phoenix supported her, the outlet noted.

“To so harshly punish a woman who was simply showing kindness to two individuals who had wandered onto her property is astounding,” Phoenix said in a statement issued by his social impact adviser, Michelle Cho.

With the criminal charges behind her, Murphy is now focused on “reconciliation” with her town and moving forward, Marceau told The Post.

“This has turned into this kind of international story of animal rights, but the truth is, she’s just a lovely older woman who wants to hug people. So, I’m hoping there’ll be some sort of community reconciliation around this,” he said.

Additional reporting by Natalie O’Neill