A Rice County jury this week convicted a Cannon City Township man of one felony count of rustling livestock.

Paul Seeman was accused of taking animals he did not own and selling them to a slaughterhouse.

According to the criminal complaint, Seeman was renting grazing land to the owner of the cattle and when the two had a dispute about rent, Seeman sold the animals.

Rice County Attorney John Fossum told KDHL that under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, Seeman faces a presumptive sentence of one year and one day in prison stayed for a period of probation.

District Court Judge Larry Collins presided over the case and Assistant Rice County Attorney Thao Trinh prosecuted it on behalf of Rice County.

Fossum thanked the jury for their service and said, "The sheriff's office did a great job of investigating the case and Ms. Trinh did an excellent job of presenting it to the jury. When there is a disupute, you can't take the law into your own hands, you need to follow the law."

Fossum told KDHL he has not seen a lot of rustling livestock cases over the years.

When I was news director at KODY Radio in North Platte, Nebraska, we probably had two or three cases a year during my three-plus-year tenure there (1983-87).

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