Hermiston rancher Michael Hockensmith will be charged with five counts of misdemeanor animal neglect and placed on probation for five years after nearly 200 malnourished cattle were discovered on his property in January.

Hockensmith was arraigned Monday. At his indictment February 28 he was charged with 200 counts of animal neglect — 14 in the first degree and 186 in the second-degree, one count for each animal in the herd. At Monday’s hearing, Hockensmith pleaded guilty to five counts of misdemeanor animal neglect, for five of the animals that died, but asked for counts 6 through 200 to be dismissed. In exchange for charges 6 through 200 being dropped, Hockensmith asked to be placed on bench probation, which means he cannot own domestic animals or livestock.

Hockensmith’s attorney, John Ballard, asked for two exceptions. One, that Hockensmith be allowed to keep one horse that he already owned, and that had been found by the sheriff’s office to have been reasonably well cared for. The other, Ballard asked permission for Hockensmith to be able to own and operate firearms, as he lives in a rural area.

Temple granted those two exceptions.

Deputy district attorney Jake Kamins, who for the past three years has specialized in animal cruelty cases, served as a special prosecutor for the case.

Although Hockensmith pleaded guilty to five counts of neglect, 17 animals from the herd died over the past few months. Ballard said five appeared to have been sick early on, when the winter storm hit.

“There are probably some other factors not worth getting into,” Ballard said. “In summation, this is probably the most fair resolution, without getting into two to three days’ trial.”

Kamins said the five animals were largely symbolic of the other animals.

“There’s nothing particularly egregious about those five,” he said. “In a plea bargain situation, we’re looking at the defendant taking responsibility for actions, and being held accountable in a way less than the max penalty. This was resolved very quickly. He took responsibility very quickly.”

He added that nothing would have been different had Hockensmith been charged with 50 counts of animal neglect.

While all the counts were initially classified as felonies, Kamins said the five to which Hockensmith pleaded guilty were reduced to misdemeanors.

“We agreed that because he was coming forward quickly, he didn’t need to have felony charges on his record,” Kamins said.

He added that no matter how many counts Hockensmith had been charged with, five years’ bench probation was the maximum he could have received for being barred from owning livestock.

“That’s a good resolution for this case,” Kamins said.

Hockensmith will also have to complete 80 hours of community service, and pay a $130 misdemeanor fee, as well as $100 for each count of animal neglect. He was initially sentenced to 180 days in jail, all of which Temple suspended.

Hockensmith did not make any comments during the hearing.

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Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan at 541-564-4534 or jramakrishnan@eastoregonian.com.