Animal-Rights Group Target of State Civil Suit

The state attorney general’s office Thursday filed a civil suit against a prominent San Fernando Valley animal-rights group, saying it illegally used more than $400,000 in charitable donations to build an arsenal of assault-style weapons, make high-risk loans and to pay personal expenses.

Van Nuys-based Mercy Crusade Inc. used charitable donations for purposes improper under state regulations for a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, according to Andi Thomas, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.

Mercy Crusade representatives were unavailable for comment. But the organization’s director, James E. McCourt, denied any wrongdoing when questioned on many of the same issues uncovered by a Times investigation last year.

He has said the organization stockpiled ammunition and weapons to protect animal shelters in case of a riot similar to the one in 1992.

“We were worried we might have to do that again,” McCourt said then.

The attorney general’s suit alleges that McCourt, a Pepperdine University economics professor, personally spent more than $130,000 of donated money to fund personal business loans and maintain his aircraft. The group spent more than $173,000 on firearms, the suit alleges.

The suit seeks $500,000 in damages, a full accounting of Mercy Crusade’s financial records for 1992, 1993 and 1994 and the removal of McCourt and three other directors from the organization’s leadership.

Mercy Crusade, a registered charitable organization that promotes animal protection and opposes vivisection, has been in existence since 1949, according to the attorney general’s office.

Raising money mainly through direct-mail solicitations, the group had a $2.3-million treasury by the end of 1993.

The civil suit charges are the culmination of a yearlong state investigation of Mercy Crusade that began with a federal probe in late 1994. At that time, Valley firearms dealers contacted federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms agents to report that Mercy Crusade members were buying unusually large amounts of ammunition and guns.

The gun buyers wore uniforms similar to a CHP officer’s, but paid for the weapons with Mercy Crusade checks, the gun dealers said.

The uniformed buyers were actually the crusade’s humane officers, animal-rights workers authorized to carry guns and wear uniforms and badges.

Mercy Crusade had named 12 of the officers--under an obscure state law more than 80 years old that empowered animal-welfare groups to commission law enforcement agents--with the approval of a local judge. The Times, in a series of stories, reported that the officers had statewide powers of arrest and seizure, but no outside supervision and were often volunteers with little law enforcement training. State officials had no idea of who they were or how many of them existed, though there appeared to be hundreds.

Following the reports, the law was amended, effective Jan. 1, drastically increasing the training time required for humane officers to carry weapons and limiting their powers.

State officials took over the federal probe of Mercy Crusade last year, scouring the group’s financial records to determine how much was spent for improper gun purchases.

But months of investigating turned up much more, including evidence that McCourt personally misused funds, that $130,000 in unsecured, high-risk loans were made--only $10,000 of which was repaid--and that the group may have falsified its charitable contribution reports to state officials, according to the attorney general’s office.

“We knew that purchasing guns was not in the definition of what is proper for a charitable organization to do,” Thomas said, adding: “We were surprised at finding” all the other problems.

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Among the weapons confiscated from Mercy Crusade’s offices last year were 12 semiautomatic Heckler & Koch assault pistols--now illegal to manufacture--five AR-15s, a Bushmaster, a Heckler & Koch .308, a Fabrique Nationale De Arms .308, and an uncommon, high-powered Israeli .50-caliber pistol, Thomas said.

McCourt said at the time that the weapons cache was necessary to train Mercy Crusade’s officers to protect themselves as they carried out investigations of animal-rights abuses.

At various times, he offered different explanations for the gun purchases, saying he wanted his humane officers to be familiar with the guns in case they ever encountered them in investigations, and that he wanted to foster a sense of “camaraderie” by giving them state-of-the-art weapons similar to those of other law enforcement officials.

McCourt said he bought the Heckler & Koch pistols shortly before they were banned by federal law to avoid dealing with extra paperwork and taxes.

Also named in the suit are Mercy Crusade directors Robert Simoneau, Max Goar and Marcia Hron. Thomas declined to say why they were named.