NEWFANE, N.Y. — In the summer of 2022, a Newfane cow sanctuary owner had been arrested for allegedly refusing to return cows that had wandered onto her property, back to their owner.
Tracy Murphy, 59, of Newfane was arrested for third-degree grand larceny (a class "D" felony). The charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor.
Murphy had been arraigned at the Niagara County Correctional Facility in front of Judge Pamela Rider on August 2, 2022.
Now as we make our way through 2024, Murphy is set to return to court at 10 a.m. on October 2 in the Town of Wheatfield for a pretrial hearing.
According to a media advisory the case involves:
"The People v. Tracy Murphy, Case No. 22080008, criminal trial in the case of a sanctuary owner criminally prosecuted for caring for cows who wandered onto her property".
Jury selection for the case will begin on Thursday, October 3 with opening statements to follow.
Murphy is being represented by the director of an animal activist legal defense project, Justin Marceau Esq.
In July of 2023 the Cornell Law School's First Amendment Clinic had filed a lawsuit on behalf of Murphy. The lawsuit claimed that a judge exceeded his authority by placing a social media "gag order" on Murphy as her case awaits resolution.
"This would mean she can't even open Facebook on her phone and scroll through to see pictures of her relative's kids," said Christina N. Neitzey, a Stanton Fellow with First Amendment Clinic, which claims the order amounts to a violation of Murphy's constitutional right to free speech.
"Suppressing first amendment protected activity before it's even happened is what we call a prior restraint, and the Supreme Court has called that one of the most serious and least tolerable infringements on first amendment rights," Neitzey said.
Read more of 2 On Your Side's previous coverage of the case attached below.
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