In the spring, Majewski retired.

Coughlin, who posts to an animal activist page, isn’t buying the AG’s reasoning.

“Not every prosecutor has the perfect case but they fight to seek justice. For example, although the O.J Simpson case had to deal with police misconduct, the DA didn’t just drop the charges,“Coughlin said. “Yes, Simpson was acquitted but he was found guilty in the court of public opinion (of murdering his ex-wife and a friend in 1994).”

A media release from Healey’s office cited Rule 3.8 of the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys: a “prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate. This responsibility carries with it [the] specific obligation to see...that guilt is decided upon the basis of sufficient evidence.”

Reached via email, Majewski said that there were “dozens of officers working on (the case) ... and it occurred in 2016 (well before his issue).”

He and others said that in the immediate aftermath of the police discovery of the animal abuse site in July 2016, there were several veterinarians on site, representatives from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as well as local and state authorities.

Coughlin, who was the Westport town administrator in 2010 during a prior animal abuse case on the same property, said the Attorney General’s office is “scapegoating Majewski.”

“Every prosecutor has cases where police misconduct comes into play but few are summarily dismissed....they damage the case but it’s no reason to throw in the towel or fly up the white flag unless a judge suppresses every piece of evidence,” Coughlin said.

“The Medeiros Farm case started with a travesty and now it ended with one — a sad day for justice.”

Coughlin was correct, when police in 2016 again uncovered animal abuse that this time would be described by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as “the worst of its kind” in the Northeast.

More than 1,000 animals were removed and around 25 people were charged with more than 150 counts of animal cruelty on the 72-acre tenant farm. In 2019, several entered guilty pleas 

and three admitted to sufficient facts to warrant a guilty finding, according to Healey’s office.

The owner of the property, Richard Medeiros, died in 2018.

Although the tenant farm site is not active and Medeiros is deceased, former and current town officials were recently asked to comment on whether 2016 could be repeated.

R. Michael Sullivan was the chairman of the select board when the second abuse case on the same property was discovered in 2016.

Sullivan said the board devised a five-tiered plan in the fall of 2016 — take immediate action to address the emergency crime scene; determine “the scope of the issue” and if there were any more animal abuse sites like the Medeiros farm in town; monitor the site; review all employees connected to animal welfare and animal control; and improve oversight through the formation of a committee, the Animal Action Committee.

The action committee recommended a livestock site registry, which was enacted last fall by the health board, and the health board is now charged with determining the locations of all livestock in town.

“Our office (at the time) assembled and worked with a multi-disciplined ad hoc committee to review past complaints and identify sites that may have been suspect. A total of six locations were identified and visited by a qualified animal inspector and our Animal Control Office. We found satisfactory conditions at all six,” Sullivan said.

“As an extension of this effort, the Board of Selectmen sought and received authority to nominate animal inspectors to the state Department of Agricultural Resources. Further, we have made some personnel and procedural changes with regard to animal inspections. These changes have already yielded results in that more than 20 new sites with farm animals have been identified and added to our annual census/inspections.”

Health board chairwoman Tanja Ryden pointed to the site registry as one of three regulations passed to protect against another farm animal abuse case.

“It is disappointing that the attorney general has recently dropped the prosecution of the largest animal abuse case in New England history that happened right here in Westport in 2016. However, since then the town has undertaken a number of actions to address the situation that occurred off Route 177.”

For its part, the Board of Health revised its piggery regulation, adopted a tenant farm regulation, took over and re-organized the Animal Control Unit and most recently passed an animal site registry,” Ryden said.

“The purpose of the registry is to identify all locations in town where domestic livestock are being kept. That will help ensure all livestock get an annual ‘barn book’ inspection and that our animal control staff and emergency responders can track down livestock owners when needed. ... We remain committed to working with all residents in town who own anything from chickens to cows, and every type of livestock in between, to make sure they are on the list.”

Ryden said the animal site registry form is available on the Board of Health website.

Ryden now joins Phil Weinberg and Donna Amaral on the health board. All three are new to the board and did not serve in 2016. Since that time, the health board has hired a director as well. Matthew Armendo was hired in 2018 and became the first Westport health director in more than 20 years.

Ouellette has served on the select board since 2002, and was in office during the Medeiros farm cases in 2010 and 2016. A major part of the problem was the health department back then “did not do its job,” according to Ouellette.

“Part of the problem was a poorly run Westport Board of Health that did not address the obvious on the site inspections,” Ouellette said.