posted 08-23-2002 09:18 AM            

ALPINE (AP) — The animal cruelty trial of a Del Rio man accused of castrating a beer-drinking goat — an animal considered the honorary mayor of Lajitas — has ended in a hung jury.

The judge declared a mistrial late Wednesday in Jim Bob Hargrave's case after jurors said they were deadlocked 8-4 in favor of acquittal.

The goat, known as Clay Henry III, was discovered shaking and bleeding on Nov. 26, the goat's caretaker testified. The animal survived.

Prosecutors alleged that Hargrove castrated the goat after a perceived insult over a bottle of beer, according to The Alpine Observer. District Attorney Frank Brown said the owner of the Lajitas resort, Steve Smith, got a beer from Hargrove and gave it to the goat to demonstrate its beer-drinking ability to a guest of the resort.

Hargrove reportedly was angered over that.

Hargrove's attorney, Martin Underwood of Comstock, painted Smith as a vindictive schemer intent on driving Hargrove out of the resort community, which is along the Rio Grande west of Big Bend National Park.

The defense sought to establish that Smith set up Hargrove, and that it was actually Smith's operatives who castrated the goat and attempted to frame Hargrove with circumstantial evidence.

Underwood asked Smith if giving the goat beer might have caused the goat; Smith said that hadn't crossed his mind.

A bloody paring knife and what authorities believed were the animal's testes were found in a trash bin and turned over the sheriff's department.

Hargrove could be retried, The Pecos Enterprise reported in its Thursday editions, quoting a spokesperson in the office of the 394th District clerk.