It is clear to me now that Craig Mosher’s bull and other animals got through his fences and out onto the road numerous times. I don’t have any idea what he did or didn’t do about it.

I believe in the truth, and I believe the truth wants to be free, and will eventually find a way to be free. There is lots more to know.

In my first writing about this case, I called it an outrage. I over-stepped, it is not an outrage.

The Mosher case unfolding in Rutland and Killington, Vt. is a tragedy all around, there is no black and white to it.

Jon Bellis hit a bull in the road one night in July of 2015,  and he and the bull were killed. Bellis’s  wife, who was riding in the car,  survived the accident.

The bull belonged to a respected and admired local excavator named Craig Mosher, and last month, Mosher was indicted on criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter. He is one of the first animal owners in America to ever be charged threatened with jail for an accident involving an animal.

The case has shaken the farming and animal communities in Vermont and  challenged the state’s cherished identity as a place where free-thinking individuals help one another, they don’t sue one another or throw them in jail for things that have always been considered accidents or acts of God.

The Mosher case is more complex than many animal cases. As a reporter I learned not to manage the truth, but to let the truth track me down, which it usually does if you permit it.

It is clear to me now that Craig Mosher’s bull and other animals got through his fences a number of times. The police were often there, neighbors and nearby workers saw it happen many times. A milk truck driver says he knocked on Mosher’s door minutes before the fatal accident to tell him his bull was standing in a motel parking lot across the road (photo above).

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the prosecutor’s decision to bring a criminal indictment against a man everyone says is a good man, the charge was not baseless or utterly without foundation. That doesn’t, of course,  make it right.

The milk truck driver told police that Mosher never came out to look for Big Red, and so the truck driver called the police. Minutes later, the bull and Jon Bellis, a 62-year-resident of Vermont and Connecticut, was dead. The Vermont State Police say they were called at least five times to the Mosher property previously  to respond to reports his animals were out on the road.

Mosher’s friends and supporters say they doubt those allegations, the center piece  of the prosecutions criminal charges. But other witnesses confirm the police affidavit.

I have since heard from several residents of Killington.

One, a woman who has lived and worked near the Mosher property for years – there is a busy state highway and intersection there – said Mosher had been notified numerous times that his animals were getting out. Her friend was sometimes late for work because she encountered the bull in the road. This lines up with the Vermont State Police report, released last week.

It would take a vast and evil conspiracy to have conjured this all up.

Interesting enough, this woman said she disagrees with the severity of the manslaughter charge, she feels drivers who hit animals bear some of the responsibility for the accident, although she was not familiar with the details of the case.  Although there is no evidence Bellis was speeding, the road was well lit and some states hold that drivers do bear some responsibility for hitting an animal directly.

But these accounts of previous escapes are troubling  because they suggest Mosher could have and should have taken some steps to prevent them from happening. I know I would have. I doubt he could or would have been charged with involuntary manslaughter if he had responded, and it is possible that he did and we just don’t know about it.

The next big question for me is whether the best response to this tragedy is to criminalize animal accidents.

Because that is what is almost certain to happen if this stands. This, to my knowledge, has never been done before, and whether Mosher was negligent or not – a judge or jury will decide – the implications for farmers and animal lovers are staggering if this does set a precedent. The Vermont Farm Bureau and the state’s farmers are deeply concerned about it.

And why wouldn’t it set a precedent? Ambitious and prosecutors and greedy lawyers will take note. There are billions of animals in America, on farms, in homes.

Involuntary manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice or forethought, either expressed or implied. It is distinguished from voluntary manslaughter or murder by the absence of intention. It is usually divided into two categories, constructive manslaughter and criminally negligent manslaughter, both of which involve criminal liability.

This is in reality a homicide charge, brought not when there is malice or premeditation, but when the negligence is so extreme it cannot be forgiven or overlooked. Or when rules that should have been followed were not, and repeatedly.

Last night, our friends Ed and Carol Gulley came over to visit with us, and Ed and Carol have been dairy farmers their whole lives. Many of their cows have gotten out onto the road in the years on the farm, it is an inevitable part of farm life, it is a natural thing for animals like cows to explore the world beyond their fences, even if they are not hungry. Lightning strikes and floods are one major reason for escapes, said Ed. But there are many others.

“I’ll tell you this,” he said, “the rule is simple. When somebody knocks on my door and says the cows out, I come running, I don’t always even take the time to get dressed or put my shoes on. I get out there and bring them back. You don’t ever want to leave a cow out on the road, day or night.”

I talked to several other farmers who said the same thing, and their comments reflect my own feelings.

I’ve also had animals get out onto the road, and when I know they are gone, I also come running. Ed and the other farmers say friends and neighbors and passersby always appear to help. Nobody ever thinks to involve the police, it is not considered a crime, rather a part of rural life.

This is an important distinction for me. There is a lot of persuasive evidence to suggest that Mosher’s bull and other animals got through his fences and into a busy intersection a number of times, and that he knew they were escaping. I don’t know what he did or didn’t do about it.

So for me, that is not really in question, nor is it the central question. The question for me is whether or not a criminal indictment on manslaughter charges is really the best punishment for Mosher or the wisest response to a tragic accident. Whatever the cause, it was an accident and it is a profound thing to make it into a crime. There is no evidence of any kind that Craig Mosher wanted to harm anyone, and apparently, he has always been generous in helping many people.

This discussion really ought to take place in Rutland. So far, the prosecutor seems to be hiding behind the fact that grand jury proceedings are secret, she refuses to discuss or explain her thinking. Every lawyer knows she could easily discuss the broad issues the case raises without violating grand jury secrets.

But until she does, it’s hard for me to imagine that the underlying issues behind this awful story will be aired out and considered

The truth about the accident and the animals on Mosher’s pasture will come out in court, the proper place for disposition of a criminal charge.

But the larger truth, the truth for many other people, may not be known for years.

Prosecutors do not work in a vacuum. Prosecutors who bring criminal charges in animal cases out to understanding farming, fences and the real lives of real animals. And they need to talk not only to themselves, but to the many people whose lives and way of life are at stake.