Mansfield man accused of releasing 15 horses from Stark County Fairgrounds has bond set at $100,000

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - A Mansfield man accused of releasing 15 race horses from the Stark County Fairgrounds had his bond set at $100,000 on Wednesday.

Canton Police said officers were able to catch 14 of the horses in the surrounding neighborhood on Monday.

Authorities said one of the horses drowned in Meyers Lake.

His name was Cash. Cash’s owner, Mike Soehnlen, says he’s grateful for the community that helped coral his other horses back to the barn.

But, it’s hard for him to think about the one that died in the icy waters of a lake.

He watched emergency responders pull Cash out Monday morning.

“I’m used to him alive and happy and healthy and to see him dead like that and basically frozen, and to have to pull him out-- it really hit me when i was hauling him at the farm away," he said. “This was supposed to be a lively horse.”

Soehnlen says the barn wasn’t locked-- it never is.

He says it’s a fire hazard for horses to be stuck inside.

“We’re kind of in a pickle,” Soehnlen said. "You don’t want to lock things up, but then if you don’t people can just walk in.

That’s what police say Ford did.

“It’s extremely cruel to turn a bunch of horses loose in the middle of the night and have them running all over Canton, Ohio,” Soehnlen said.

Jonathan Ford has been charged with breaking and entering, inducing panic and disrupting public service and possession of drugs.

Ford pleaded not guilty at his arraginment on Jan. 16, his preliminary hearing will be at 1 p.m. on Jan. 24.

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