CHARGES REDUCED IN DEATH\Vet faces hearing in goat delivery.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

Prosecutors have reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor the animal cruelty charge filed against a Lancaster veterinarian for his treatment of a pregnant pygmy goat whose baby died during delivery.

Both sides of the case also have decided to await the outcome of an administrative hearing on alleged veterinarian misconduct and possible negligence by Dr. Larry Bosma to determine whether to proceed with the criminal case or settle it.

"It was suggested that since he was going to have an administrative hearing regarding possible negligence before a licensing authority, we decided the best thing to do is put the trial after the hearing," said Bosma's attorney, Michael Eberhardt. "The hearing result may dictate whether the DA would pursue it further, or whether my client would fight it further."

Eberhardt and Deputy District Attorney Kelly Cromer agreed on Thursday to have the case reduced to a misdemeanor, and the case was transferred Friday from Lancaster Superior Court to Antelope Municipal Court.

Bosma, 45, who is a Westside Union School District trustee and a Leona Valley resident, is free on his written promise to appear in court. He is scheduled to appear in Antelope Municipal Court for a trial setting date on June 14.

The hearing before an administrative law judge will be held in the next several months, officials said.

"After the evidence is presented there (at the hearing), it's quite possible it might be dispositive of the misdemeanor proceeding," Cromer said. "We will wait to see what's presented. It could save the county a lot of expense."

The felony animal cruelty charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in state prison, but prosecutors had said they were not intending to seek any prison or jail time.

"This guy isn't going to be going away for time, so it doesn't make a lot of difference whether it's a misdemeanor or a felony," Cromer said. "If we aren't asking for time, it doesn't make a difference."

When asked why it was filed as a felony in the first place, Cromer said she didn't file the case.

"They realized the proper place for it," Eberhardt said of the reduction of the charge. "A misdemeanor is what it should've been."

Bosma is accused of causing severe trauma to the pygmy goat by trying to manually deliver the baby goat rather than do a Caesarean section and failing to administer any type of painkiller, prosecutors said.

After the baby goat died inside its mother's womb, Bosma performed a fetotomy - cutting up of the fetus to remove it - without using any type of anesthesia or analgesia on the mother, officials said.

Three veterinarians called by the prosecution during a preliminary hearing said that the preferred options were to do either a Caesarean section or euthanasia. They said that a fetotomy should not be performed on a pygmy goat because it's too small.

But a Littlerock veterinarian called by the defense said he had done fetotomies on pygmy goats without using any type of pain treatment.

Judy Bowers, the owner of the 4-year-old goat Mama Lu, said she brought in her goat to Bosma on June 14, 1994 because it was experiencing complications in giving birth.

While Bowers maintained that Bosma said he did not want to perform a C-section because he didn't like to do such procedures on goats, court records show that one of Bosma's veterinary assistants said that Bowers told the doctor that she couldn't afford it.