Charges of Obstructing a Grand Jury and the Alleged Dealing of Horse Slaughter Have Roots in Murfreesboro and Lebanon

Sep 20, 2013 at 04:30 am by bryan


One Murfreesboro woman and a man from Lebanon will soon face charges in federal court after being indicted in recent days.

65-year old Dorian Ayache from Lebanon and 53-year old Theresa Vincent from Murfreesboro, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to the violation of U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations.  The indictment charges Ayache with nine counts of violating DOT regulations, one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, and two counts of obstructing a grand jury investigation.  Vincent was charged with conspiring to defraud the United States and with one count of perjury.

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According to the indictment, Ayache was the owner and operator of Three Angels Farms, an interstate commercial motor carrier based in Lebanon and Vincent was the owner and alleged operator of Terri’s Farm, an interstate commercial motor carrier based in Murfreesboro.

In June 2012 DOT deemed that the operations of Three Angels Farms posed an imminent hazard to public safety and issued an order requiring Ayache to cease commercial motor vehicle operations.  DOT’s Order was based on Ayache’s unacceptable safety practices, including his failure to adequately maintain his commercial motor vehicles and his failure to ensure that drivers were qualified, and cited 2012 accidents on I-40 and I-24 in Tennessee that resulted in fatal injuries to horses being transported. It has been alleged that Three Angels Farms is a company that is in the business of selling horses for slaughter.

The original indictment alleges that, in violation of this order, Ayache continued his commercial motor carrier operations under the name and authority of Terri’s Farm, as well as under other names.  DOT later categorized Terri’s Farm as a mere continuation of Three Angels Farm.

The indictment also alleges that Ayache concealed and attempted to destroy emails with the intent to impair their availability for use in the grand jury investigation and that Vincent made false statements under oath to a grand jury regarding her communications with Dorian Ayache during the investigation.

If Conviction Occurs in The Above Case:

If convicted, Ayache faces up to 20 years in prison on each obstruction charge, up to 5 years in prison on the conspiracy charge, and up to 1 year in prison for each charge of violating DOT regulations.  Vincent faces up to 5 years in prison on both the conspiracy count and the perjury charges, if convicted.

The case was investigated by the United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General.  The United States is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Abely.

An indictment is merely an accusation and is not evidence of guilt.  All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Additional Information is Available in Online Blogs:

WGNS Found that a woman by the name of Mary Nash has researched the companies in question. In her pursuit to learn more about the businesses, she posted numerous documents online dealing with actions that may have played a role in the arrests that recently took place in both Lebanon and Murfreesboro.

The information posted by Mary Nash can be found on her website entitled “KaufmanZoning.Net.”

The link to her information is below:

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/threeangelsfarmsreincarnatesintoterrisfarms0812.pdf

Original Source:

The US Department of Justice released information on the above case:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/tnm/pressReleases/2013/9-12-13.html

 

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