THE COURT: The two gentlemen defendants are present. Mr. Dungan, we’re ready to proceed?
MR. DUNGAN: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Anything preliminary?
MR. DUNGAN: No, sir.
THE COURT: Mr. Dungan?
MR. DUNGAN: Come up here, sir. Stop and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you will give in this matter will be the truth, so help you God?
MR. FELDKAMP: I do.
THE COURT: Come on around. Watch your step coming up. Have a seat. The chair is on rollers.
Thinking more about your matter, Miss Lamp. Anybody that’s in the courtroom now, you ain’t leaving, you understand that? Nobody’s leaving. Are you here to watch the horse case only? If you’re not, you’d better go out in the hall. You said no.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I have a different case here.
THE COURT: Okay. You should go out in the hall. Because I’m not going to let you out later to go run around and talk to people. Anybody else? Except Mr. Dungan, you’re going to be able to leave to go get your witnesses.
MR. DUNGAN: Thank you, Judge.
THE COURT: State your full name.
THE WITNESS: Arthur Feldkamp.
THE COURT: And spell your last name.
THE WITNESS: F-e-l-d-k-a-m-p.
THE COURT: Thank you. Mr. Dungan?
MR. DUNGAN: Thank you, Your Honor.
ARTHUR
FELDKAMP
Called at 8:10 a.m. by Defense, sworn by the court, testified:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. Mr. Feldkamp, what’s your address?
A.
Q. What kind of property is that?
A. Agricultural property.
Q. You have farmland out there?
A. Yes.
Q. All right. And do you grow certain things on that farmland?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. How many acres do you have?
A. I own twenty-five.
Q. And do you farm all twenty-five?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. All right. What do you farm out there?
A. Pardon me?
Q. What do you farm out there? What types of crops?
A. What type of crops?
Q. Yes.
A. I have wheat, corn, hay mixture, soybeans.
Q. All right. And you do sell hay as part of a business that you run out there?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Is that the primary business you have out there?
A. Part of the business, yes. It’s not strictly hay business.
Q. How long have you been selling hay out at that property?
A. (No audible response)
Q. Approximately.
A. Twenty-five years.
Q. Okay. Do you sell round bales, square bales, or both?
A. Just small square bales.
Q. All right. And when you say small square bale, what size are we talking about?
A. Approximately fourteen by sixteen by forty-two to forty-eight inches long.
Q. All right. And do those tend to come in a particular weight as well, that size?
A. It depends on the quantity that gets, of hay that gets pushed into the baler at a time. Approximately these bales are-—
THE COURT: Excuse me. Mr. Feldkamp, excuse me. Sir, what are you here for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I’m here for the horse trial.
THE COURT: If you’re leaving-—Is that a witness?
MR. DUNGAN: Mr. Haag, is that correct? Would you wait outside in the hallway?
MR. HAAG: Oh, okay, sure.
MR. DUNGAN: And we’ll be with you in just a couple minutes.
THE COURT: And don’t talk to anybody either, sir. Sir, don’t talk to anybody.
MR. HAAG: All right.
THE COURT: I’m sorry, Mr. Dungan. I interrupted. You were in the middle of talking about weight.
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. We’re talking about square bales. Is there an approximate weight or a range you can give us that those square bales come in at?
A. Approximately fifty to seventy pounds is usually when they’re properly moisture-wise.
Q. All right. And when you sell those, do you sell by the bale, sell by the pound? How does that work?
A. Usually by the bale.
Q. What’s the price for a square bale?
A. It depends on the time of year, the quality of the hay when you come up with that type of thing that, you know, from what the price will range at.
Q. Can you give me a range of what would be the cheapest square bale to the most expensive square bale?
A. Fifty cents to four fifty.
Q. All right.
A. Per bale.
Q. Do you know an individual named Matt Mercier?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Do you see him in court today?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Where is he seated?
A. Next to you, sir.
Q. How do you know Mr. Mercier?
THE COURT: At the table with the red and blue tie?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: The record will reflect that he’s identified the defendant Mr. Mercier.
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. How do you know Mr. Mercier?
A. From coming to buy hay from me.
Q. He’s been a customer of yours?
A. Yes, he has.
Q. How long has Mr. Mercier been a customer of yours?
A. I can’t say exactly how many years, but it’s been four or five years at least.
Q. Where he’s been a regular customer?
A. Yes, he has.
THE COURT: Officer Elder? Excuse me. Anybody leaves the courtroom, cuff them and take them to jail. Okay?
OFFICER ELDER: Okay.
THE
COURT: Mr. Dungan?
MR. DUNGAN: Didn’t know what you were walking into, did
you?
THE COURT: Except for Mr. Dungan, he has to go get witnesses.
MR. DUNGAN: Thank you for that qualification, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Although I’ll leave that up to the discretion of the officer.
MR. DUNGAN: Guess I’ll be nice to you today.
THE COURT: I interrupted you again.
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. Mr. Feldkamp, when you say Mr. Mercier is a customer, what is it that he purchases from you?
A. Small square bales of hay.
Q. All right. And how often does Matt purchase from you, say going back about the last year or so.
A. In the last year?
Q. Yeah.
A. Usually he purchases during the winter months when there is no pasture available. Usually on a one to two week basis was when he purchased bales and it varies from fifteen bales to forty-five bales per visit.
Q. All right. So during the winter months you’ll see him once a week or once every two weeks?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right. And is this something where he has to call you first and make arrangements to pick up?
A. Usually he calls in advance, yes, to make sure that I am home.
Q. All right. And when he shows up once a week or once every two weeks he’ll purchase anywhere from fifteen to forty-five bales.
A. That’s correct.
Q. All right. And his, is he primarily a customer of yours just during the winter months or do you actually see him all year round?
A. Sometimes I see him during the summer months that he purchases hay straight from the field.
Q. Okay. Do you know who Jim Henderson is or James Henderson is?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. How is it that you know him?
A.
Through Matt. It goes back a long
ways in a sense. My wife knows him from
working in
Q. Okay. Let me ask you a better question. Has Mr. Henderson been out to your farm to purchase hay?
A. Yes, he has.
Q. When is the last time that you would have seen him out there doing that?
A. I want to say approximately a year ago this winter. I don’t recall exactly on that one.
Q. Did you see him this most recent winter from late two--
THE COURT: Just a minute. Mr. Garver, are you here for the horse thing?
MR. GARVER: Yeah.
THE COURT: I’m not going to let you leave once you’re in until we have a break.
MR. GARVER: Okay.
THE COURT: If you leave I got to send you to jail like I promised the other people. It’s up to you, you can leave. I don’t need bad publicity any more than I already get. Okay, do you understand that, Phil?
MR. GARVER: Yes.
THE COURT: People have been talking and we can’t have that. All right? Good to see you though. Okay, Mr. Dungan.
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. Did you see Mr. Henderson out at your farm purchasing hay this most recent winter from late 2006 into early 2007?
A. No.
Q. All right. Any contact with him at all during that time period?
A. No.
MR. DUNGAN: All right. Thank you, Your Honor. I don’t have any further questions for Mr. Feldkamp.
THE COURT: Okay. Mr. Feldkamp, Miss Lamp here will have some questions for you. Okay?
Miss
Lamp?
MS. LAMP: I have no questions for Mr. Feldkamp. Thank you.
THE
COURT: Mr. Feldkamp, you say you know
Mr. Henderson. Is he in the courtroom?
THE WITNESS: Yes, he is.
THE COURT: Can you point him out and describe what he’s wearing and where he’ seated?
THE WITNESS: With the blue and white striped tie.
THE COURT: Okay. Stand up. Is that him there?
THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: The record will reflect that he’s identified the defendant Mr. Henderson. Yu mentioned to us that you did not see Mr. Henderson this past winter. Is that correct?
THE WITNESS: That’s correct.
THE COURT: Okay. You mentioned also you saw Mr. Mercier buying at the farm, your farm.
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: When was the last time you saw him?
THE WITNESS: I don’t have-—I had some dates wrote down and I forgot to bring that piece of paper with me, but I want to say it was in March.
THE COURT: Of this year?
THE WITNESS: This year.
THE COURT: So are you saying you do keep records of persons that come to your farm and buy your products, including hay?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: What kind of system is that? Do you just write it down on a note pad?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: Put it on a computer at all?
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: No book is kept somewhere?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: Where do you keep that?
THE WITNESS: At home.
THE COURT: So in March, do you recall the date in March?
THE WITNESS: I don’t recall it off the top of my head, no.
THE COURT: How do you remember at all?
THE WITNESS: Because I was reviewing this from a week ago when I was here and that’s the way I recall when he was here, because we wrote down the dates, you know, from before. When Matt was out to the farm.
THE COURT: You haven’t reviewed it again since last week?
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: All right. Give me some approximation in terms of St. Patrick’s Day, March seventeenth. Before that day, after?
THE WITNESS: I think it was before that.
THE COURT: Think it was? Why do you think that?
THE WITNESS: I don’t recall for sure, but that’s what sticks in my mind.
THE COURT: How often before that was Mr. Mercier at your farm?
THE WITNESS: Approximately every two weeks.
THE COURT: This is something you document in writing?
THE WITNESS: That I have in my note pad, yes.
THE COURT: Yes. Why do you document that?
THE WITNESS: Why?
THE COURT: Yes.
THE WITNESS: To keep track of when it happened. I was not keeping real strict track of it until Officer Wheaton called and was questioning what was, you know, about me selling hay to Mr. Mercier. So then I started wracking my brain trying to remember what all the dates were when Mr. Mercier was there.
THE COURT: So you--
THE WITNESS: But I did not have an exact date.
THE COURT: So you don’t do it simultaneously then with the visit.
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: Does anyone else work at your farm that would sell to Mercier?
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: Just you.
THE WITNESS: Right.
THE COURT: Okay. Officer Wheaton is this officer seated there?
THE WITNESS: I do not know Officer Wheaton. I only spoke to her on the phone.
THE COURT: On the telephone, okay. So before you talked to her on the telephone you didn’t write down anything concerning Mercier coming to your farm then. If I understand you correctly.
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: I don’t understand you correctly? Or I do understand you correctly? You didn’t write anything down before Officer Mercier(sic) called you?
MR. DUNGAN:
MS. LAMP: Officer Wheaton.
THE COURT: Or Officer Wheaton.
THE WITNESS: No, there was some, I kept track of some of it, with deposits going to the bank, and otherwise, you know, not all deposits went at the same time.
THE COURT: And you didn’t—-
THE WITNESS: And not simultaneously when Mr. Mercier was there.
THE COURT: So you just think he was there every two weeks?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: You just think he was there before St. Patrick’s Day the last time?
THE WITNESS: Yeah. That’s why I say, I do not have my paper with me that had the dates on there.
THE COURT: But you made that paper up after you talked with Officer Wheaton.
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: You had nothing that was ongoing on a regular basis through the winter. Is that right?
THE WITNESS: That’s correct. I did not have it wrote down.
THE COURT: Mr. Dungan, do you have any further questions?
MR. DUNGAN: I do, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
FURTHER DIRECT EXAINATION (At 8:22 a.m.)
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. Mr. Feldkamp, is Mr. Mercier your only hay customer?
A. No, he is not.
Q. What kind of customer base do you have? Approximately how many people?
A. Three. If I remember right the people that come in to buy hay.
Q. Three including Mr. Mercier?
A. Right.
Q. All right. And do you keep records for the other two simultaneously with the purchase?
A. According to my bank deposits, yes.
Q. Okay. But you’re not doing anything different for Mr. Mercier than you are for the two different customers?
A. No.
Q. All right. Now, during the time period of say November ‘06 through March of ’07, is it your recollection that Mr. Mercier followed his regular winter routine as far as buying hay from you?
A. Pretty much on a regular routine, yes.
Q. All right. And if he had not showed up for a month or six weeks, would that have been something that was noticeable to you?
A. Pardon me?
Q. If Mr. Mercier had not showed up for a four week or a six week stretch between November of ’06 and March of ’07, is that something you think you would have noticed?
A. I would have noticed that, yes.
Q. But you don’t have any recollection that something like that happened?
A. No, not that length of period of time, no.
Q. All right. And the last time that Mr. Mercier bought hay from you was some time in March of ’07?
A. That’s correct.
Q. All right. Have you seen him since that time as far as being a customer buying hay?
A. No.
Q. All right. Do you know why you haven’t seen him?
A. Pardon?
Q. Do you know why you haven’t seen him?
A. Because of the case that we got here that he was banned from his property, the way I understood it anyway, that he could not feed his animals.
Q. All right. And you said that Animal Control Officer Wheaton called you?
A. Yes.
Q. And do you know approximately when that was?
A. No, I do not.
Q. Do you know what month it was in?
A. I believe it was in March.
Q. All right. What was the nature of that call that was put to you?
A. About selling hay to Mr. Mercier.
Q. Did she ask you if you were selling hay to Mr. Mercier?
A. Yes.
Q. All right. What did you tell her?
A. That I told her that Mr. Mercier was, had been a customer for years and that he was purchasing hay approximately every two weeks. From one week to two weeks. It varied according to what Mr. Mercier requested the hay.
Q. Did you essentially tell her what you’ve testified in court to here today?
A. Yes, sir.
MR. DUNGAN: All right. Thank you, Your Honor. I don’t have any other questions.
THE COURT: Miss Lamp, do you have further questions?
MS. LAMP: I do have a couple questions, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
CROSS-EXAMINATION (At 8:25 a.m.)
BY MS. LAMP:
Q. Mr., it’s Feldkamp, correct?
A. Right.
Q. Okay. Did you provide Mr. Mercier with some receipts for the hay?
A. No.
Q. And do you provide your other customers with receipts?
A. No.
Q. Do you, do you, you know, for tax purposes oftentimes people will keep track of that type of income. Do you have some other kind of recordkeeping system that you use? As to know when you’re selling hay, what’s going out and what’s coming in?
A. Yes, we do have a recordkeeping system. My wife takes care of that.
Q. And what do you, what type of records do you keep?
A. Usually on just a ledger book.
Q. And how does that work, if you could explain for me please.
A. Well, there’s files that we keep track of the income coming in and the expenses going out.
Q. And if I can ask you. When you keep track of the income coming in, how do you keep track of that? What is contained in that record? The date, who bought it, who sold it, how do you do that?
A. Yes. That’s the way it is wrote down on the, on the dates and who purchased it.
Q. Do you keep track of the method of payment?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Is the usual method of payment cash or is it usually check or credit card?
A. With Mr. Mercier it was cash.
Q. And how long have you been keeping that ledger book?
A. Years.
Q. Years? So you would actually have all those records in a ledger book if I understand you correctly.
A. Mm-Hmm.
Q. Is that a yes?
A. They’re in the files anyway.
Q. In the files.
A. In my files. We have file folders I should say, not a ledger, you know, an exact ledger book.
Q. So in your file folders you have actual records of when you sold the hay to Mr. Mercier, how he paid for it, and when Mr. Henderson has bought hay you have records of that as well.
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. Did you bring those records with you today?
A. No, I did not.
Q. And as I understood you, you said your wife is the person that’s in charge of keeping that recordkeeping system?
A. Yes.
Q. And what is your wife’s name?
A. Elaine.
Q. Is her last name also Feldkamp?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. And Mr. Feldkamp, do you give her the information or is she there when the sale takes place? How does she know what’s going on so that..
A. No. I inform her of when the sale happens.
Q. And how often do you inform her?
A. When it happens.
Q. Like the same day it happens.
A. Right.
Q.
Okay. That makes sense to
me. I’m just asking, okay. Did you mention that your wife knows Mr. Henderson
from working with him in
A. Yes.
Q. And how is it that she knows him, if you know?
A.
Mr. Henderson is a probation officer I believe it is and I don’t know
the technicalities of this, with
Q. How long did your wife work in the court system?
A. Thirty-four years.
Q. Thirty-four years. That’s a long time. Is she still working in the court system or is she retired?
A. Retired.
Q. Okay. And when did she retire?
A. Four years ago.
MS. LAMP: Thank you, Mr. Feldkamp. I have no further questions.
THE COURT: Mr. Dungan?
REDIRECT EXAMINATION(At 8:30 a.m.)
BY MR. DUNGAN:
Q. Mr. Feldkamp, were you and your wife and Mr. Henderson I guess social friends where you would socialize together?
A. No. I think it was just strictly business. We never socialized otherwise at all that I can recall.
Q. All right. And the same question as to Mr. Mercier.
A. No. Just strictly business.
Q. Okay.
A. We didn’t socialize otherwise.
MR. DUNGAN: All right. Thank you, Your Honor. I don’t have any other questions.
THE COURT: Okay, Mr. Feldkamp. Thanks for coming in. May Mr. Feldkamp be excused, Mr. Dungan?
MR. DUNGAN: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Miss Lamp?
MS. LAMP: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: You’re excused from your subpoena. You can go about your business. Watch your step going down though, okay?
You can leave the courtroom, you’re not going to jail.
(At 8:30 a.m. witness excused)
THE COURT: Anybody wants to leave, leave now, but you’re not coming back. If she comes back, lock her up.
MR. DUNGAN: This is Mrs. Feldkamp. They’re going home together, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Oh, okay. Maybe we’ll lock her up anyway, right? What do you think, hey, Mr. Feldkamp, what do you think? Shall I lock her up?
MRS. FELDKAMP: Lock me up, I’ll call anther judge.
THE COURT: Call Grant. Good luck. (Laughing)