Melissa truly has an eye for choosing the best people to surround herself with, including drunks & felons, oh my! Theresa Evans is listed under the The Devoted Barn website as one of their "equine coordinators”. Theresa has a record (this is public record) complete with fraud, embezzlement of over $20,000 & even served about 2 years of jail time.
Some people assume that Melissa is not required to pay property taxes as The Devoted Barn/DFAS is a 501c3. It is also assumed that the lease contract holders are the only ones boarding horses & running a for-profit business there, being the cause of the need for payment of said taxes. However, as mentioned in this blog, Theresa Evans boards six horses at the Devoted Barn's boarding facility: Molly, Logan, Tristan, Ruby Pony, Spirit, & Luna. She uses those six horses to run a for profit lesson program that was once “The Devoted Equestrian Center” (their Facebook page has since been deleted, wonder why?), and now called Heartfelt Farm. Because of this, even if TDB raised all the money to pay off their land contract, they would still be required to have the Special Land Use Permits for the riding program and boarding barn per the Rose Township "Riding Academy" SLUP requirement.They would also be required to pay property taxes as there is a for profit business occupying the property. We don’t know about you, but it's deeply concerning allowing a felon convicted of fraud and embezzlement run a for profit business, under the roof of a nonprofit's facility. Think about the kind of doors that opens for a seasoned fraud....this is discomforting. We have very good reasons to believe that Melissa is committing fraud by mixing donated funds with her personal business, and now she's got a felon as a teammate!
Definition of "Riding Academy" per Rose Township Ordinances below:
There is no reason for Theresa to be running a for profit business as an animal rescue. What financial benefit does that bring to the rescue? Is Theresa helping to pay for the facility? Is Theresa helping to pay for liability insurance? Is Theresa helping to maintain the facility and equipment that are necessary to the farm? What right does she have to make her own money based out of a DONATION FUNDED facility? Theresa is listed as an equine coordinator on their website, meaning she helps with horse adoptions & placement. Why is it that Theresa buys & houses horses for her own business, instead of working with & training the rescue horses already there? Her 6 horses fill stalls and paddocks that could be used for rescues. The Devoted Barn claims to have “untouchable” or “sensitive” horses that need special work. Why isn’t Theresa devoting all her barn time to them, preparing them to be able to be adopted out & find homes? This would surely help to drive horse adoptions and aid in turnover, thus making room to save more lives! Instead horses like Sadie, Janie and Ruby are living outside in a paddock by the road far away from the barn with limited interaction. How are they meant to find homes if they aren't being handled on a regular basis and learning the skills to be good horses for someone? As you can see, there was a time when volunteers were working with these horses...why not now with their brilliant horse trainer? https://www.facebook.com/TheDevotedBarn/videos/297359678707641
Among Theresa’s students is Christiana B, who purchased a new horse this past summer, and also recently rescued another from the auction. Christiana is also one of the "equine coordinators" for The Devoted Barn. Between just these two ladies, that is 8 stalls being occupied. Per Melissa’s own posts, it is $750/mo for board. This means between these two ladies alone; Melissa should be making $6000/mo from board. This kind of disposable income is a luxury most cannot afford. How are these two women affording to pay the cost to board their multiple horses there? Well, the The Devoted Barn discount of course! Pay what you can & hoard however many animals until your heart's content. (Did you know that they even have people's personal goats at the property?) Melissa likes to complain about the boarding barn costing her money yet, she could break even if only she wasn’t so oblivious to the opportunity. For $6000/mo from just two people there, her close friends & devoted volunteers, that pays her monthly land contract payment, on top of what she would receive from the land contract holders. Maybe Melissa is just bad at math? It is known that there are multiple other personally owned horses there, owned by friends and volunteers, in fact they just claimed that the new horse Maizey that came in from the auction is owned by two volunteers. In addition, Melissa has at least 10+ horses there of her own. Let’s assume Melissa had 20 boarding stalls paying the $750/mo, $750 x 20 stalls = $15,000. We mean really, maybe she just doesn’t understand math!
So come on down to Heartfelt Farm, hosted by the Devoted Barn. From felons to floozies, they’ve got great stuff for you! Ride ponies paid for by a fraud & pay them too! Spend your time riding instead of volunteering, oh and don’t forget, you’re funding a criminal (or two)!
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