Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Man Charged With Theft of Foal : Canyon Country: Authorities say Richard Rivetti, son of San Fernando’s police chief, sold the animal for $150.

A police chief’s teen-age son has been charged with stealing a day-old foal worth at least $20,000.

Richard Anthony Rivetti, 18, the son of San Fernando Police Chief Dominick Rivetti, told investigators he sold the foal for $150 so he could buy his girlfriend a gift, authorities said Monday.

The youth, who lives in Canyon Country, faces up to three years in state prison if convicted of felony grand theft in the May 19 incident. He has pleaded not guilty, but agreed Monday in Newhall Municipal Court to be interviewed by probation officials, the first step in reaching a possible plea bargain arrangement.

Larryann Willis, 48, who owns the purebred quarter horse colt and is nurturing it back to health following its discovery a week after the theft, said Rivetti should serve a significant jail sentence.

“This isn’t a case of a little boy who always wanted a horse and took it so he could have one of his own,” Willis said.

Rivetti has a troubled history of being a runaway and committing other criminal violations, according to authorities and court records. Officials declined to comment on specifics because the violations took place when Rivetti was a juvenile.

“The Sheriff’s Department has been aware of who he is for quite a while,” said Detective Chris Christopher of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Rivetti declined to discuss the case following his court hearing Monday. His father did not return calls to his office.

The younger Rivetti allegedly stole the foal from a ranch near his home at about 3:30 a.m. on May 19, according to court records. He reportedly told sheriff’s officials he placed an electrical cord around the animal’s neck to restrain it, then placed it in the trunk of his car.

Rivetti allegedly brought the foal to Sylmar, then sold it to a friend in Saugus, according to a report by Detective Lawrence Barnes.

“The suspect said he was unemployed and needed money,” wrote Barnes in a report, detailing an interview with Rivetti. “His girlfriend’s birthday was May 10 . . . and he was unable to buy her a gift. He knew that there was a colt at a nearby stable. He decided to steal it.”

The foal was worth at least $20,000, Willis said, because it is the offspring of two champion reining and cutting horses. Reining and cutting horses are performers that can compete for large sums of prize money, up to $100,000 in some national championships.

A cutting horse is used to separate individual cattle from a herd. A reining horse performs athletic spinning and other maneuvers.

Willis said she plans to use the colt as a show horse and for commercial breeding.

After the foal was discovered missing, Willis made it known locally that she was offering a reward of $500 for its return. She said Rivetti, who she had never before met, visited her at that time.

“He showed up while the colt was still gone, asking if I had any leads and about the reward,” she said. “He had the nerve to look me right in the eye.”

An anonymous caller told deputies at the Santa Clarita station on May 26 that Rivetti had stolen the foal, according to court records. Deputies confronted Rivetti at his home, the records go on to say, and the teen-ager led them to the foal.

By then the foal was “skin and bones,” Willis said, weighing about 20 pounds less than his birth weight of 80 pounds. She said the foal apparently was fed rarely and was given store-bought cow’s milk, which has too high a fat content for a colt.

“I don’t think they had any clue about what it takes to keep a newborn foal alive,” she said. “I think we had less than 24 hours left before it died.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Ulfig said a misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property has been filed against one of the two men at the Saugus home where the foal was found.

Willis said the colt “has probably doubled in weight” since he was recovered and appears as if he will physically recover from the ordeal. She said the colt has been registered under the name of “Detective Barnes,” in honor of the detective who headed the investigation.

“He worked on his day off to get the colt back,” she said. “If he had not done that, the foal probably would have died.”

Times staff writer Martha L. Willman contributed to this story.