Despite the conclusions of eminent veterinarians that Alydar had not been deliberately injured, it became obvious prosecutors and others believed differently. It was disturbing that my integrity was called into question.
She asked me if it was true that I had said the horse was killed for the insurance money. I was stunned by the question. I turned to the judge and told him that I had never said the horse was killed for insurance money.
The grand jury indicted Stone on two counts of perjury, and in June of 1998, more than seven years after Alydar’s death, his trial began.
Stone had a court-appointed attorney and did not testify at his trial. The attorney had worked with a very small budget but did make at least one trip to Lexington to interview witnesses. Stone also took a lie detector test, which he passed.
I had the feeling the government was trying to get some inside information from Stone in exchange for a reduced sentence. Actually, Stone did not know anything more than what he had told me in his recorded statement I had taken just a few days after Alydar’s injury. At the end of that interview
I asked him, “Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you think is important?” He answered, “No, sir.”
The government called more than 20 witnesses for Stone’s trial but not all testified. I testified as a government witness. My recorded statement, taken many years earlier, was read in open court and I was questioned by the assistant U.S. Attorney. As I was on the stand, she approached me with a yellow legal pad in her hand as though she was reading from it. She asked me if it was true that I had said the horse was killed for the insurance money. I was stunned by the question. I turned to the judge and told him that I had never said the horse was killed for insurance money. The assistant U.S. Attorney returned to her seat and asked me no further questions.
This was another instance where I felt the questioning was leading to some accusation that I was part of a conspiracy to collect the insurance money. I was not asked any follow-up questions, but felt the seed had been planted in the jurors’ minds.
It seemed like the logical person to have been called as a witness was J. T. Lundy. For some reason he could not be located, even though a publication at the time had published his Florida address and telephone number.
In November of 1998, Stone was convicted on the perjury charges and sentenced to several years in prison. The judge reduced the jury’s sentence to the minimum of five months in prison and five months of home confinement.
Just a few months later, in March of 1999, Lundy and his attorney, Gary Matthews, were indicted on federal charges that they intentionally and systematically had defrauded the First City National Bank of Houston of $65 million in loans to Calumet through bribery and deceit. The trial began in January of 2000. It concluded in February with a unanimous guilty verdict against both men. A sentencing hearing took place in October that year, but it soon digressed into a long series of questions centering on the circumstances surrounding Alydar’s death. It seemed the government attorneys still wanted to tie Lundy to the horse’s death in an effort to add to his sentence.
I was called to appear for questioning, along with the FBI agent handling the Alydar case and an expert hired by the government.
U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake set the tone early in the proceedings. He stated the case did not involve Alydar’s death despite government inferences that Lundy had concocted a scheme that resulted in the horse’s demise to collect the insurance proceeds. The judge went on to say the government had obtained a conviction in the Stone perjury trial and was now “seeking through some sort of back door to hold Lundy criminally culpable for something that was not an issue in the fraud trial.”
FBI agent Rob Foster spent the better part of two hours testifying about the broken floor bracket from Alydar’s stall door, which the FBI labs and their metallurgist had examined. The agent admitted having no information as to the age of the bracket. He also was asked about photos he had taken but that were now missing. He remarked there was not enough evidence to implicate anyone in Alydar’s death and admitted his testimony conflicted with three well-regarded veterinarians who were on the scene the night of the injury and who all described it the same way.
The government witness was a physics Ph.D. from MIT with no formal training in metallurgy. He had a complicated formula as to how much force a horse’s kick would have on the stall door. He did not know the age or type of the broken bolts, nor did he know how long they had been in the concrete floor. He had not seen the FBI’s report and did not call them for their opinion, nor had he seen any photos of the bolts. In an interview with Texas Monthly in their 2001 storyThe Killingof Alydarby Skip Hollingsworth, this expert expressed the opinion that Alydar’s leg had been tied to a truck and pulled out the door. This scenario did not come up in his sworn testimony.
I was the final witness, responding mostly to questioning by Lundy’s attorney. I provided my claim background and then repeated the same facts I had provided to the grand jury, the FBI agents, and the jury in Stone’s perjury — all of this about an event that had occurred almost 10 years earlier. I also was asked about the assistant U.S. Attorney’s question to me during Stone’s trial about my alleged statement that the horse had been killed for the insurance money. I had a dilemma about answering the question and I asked Judge Lake if I could answer in private. He said “No.” I then testified that I had received a telephone call from FBI agent Foster at my home just a few weeks after the perjury trial in July of 1998. This call was a complete surprise to me as Foster had never reached out to me before nor had he ever provided me with any status reports. I knew that if his phone call to me ever became public record, it would not serve him well.
“I am not able to conclude by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Lundy is responsible for the death of Alydar”
U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE SIM LAKE
I was asked by the government attorneys to paraphrase what was said in the phone call. I declined, saying I would rather read the notes I had taken that night. In the notes, Foster basically said I never said the horse was killed on purpose or for the insurance money. He asked me no questions and I got the feeling he was just getting his frustration off his chest. The agent also mentioned that on the night of the horse’s injury, no one doubted that the injury occurred other than as reported. This left the government attorneys in somewhat of a quandary, hearing that an FBI agent had called a witness after the fact. They asked me more questions and I assured them I had received and not made the call. Last I heard Foster had been transferred to Flagstaff, Arizona.
Lake had the last word.
“I conclude, based on the evidence admitted during the trial and the arguments raised in the briefs, that although there is evidence Mr. Lundy had a motive to injure Alydar, to collect the insurance proceeds, and that he had an opportunity, that I am not able to conclude by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Lundy is responsible for the death of Alydar,” he said. “There is strong suspicion but the counterbalance is the testimony of two eminent treating veterinarians. I agree it was appropriate to raise it, but I’m not persuaded that the government has sustained its burden by preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Lundy is responsible for the death of Alydar.”
Lundy’s attorney asked for a delay in the sentencing, but Lake replied, “If he’s ruined by the events, it’s because he committed crime… he’s not an innocent victim of circumstances. He’s a convicted felon.”
When questioned about an appeal, Lake replied, “He’s as guilty as sin.” Motion for bond was
denied.
With a sentencing of 54 months being handed down, along with restitution in the amount of $20,473,783 Lundy turned sideways to the judge. He appeared to know this was the end.
Editor’s note: Lundy reported to the federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla., in February 2001. He completed his sentence in early 2005 and served another