Ralph Casey watches Doodle as he walks on an equine treadmill at the Farrier’s National Research Center in LaFayette, Ga.Jillian Myers, 20, wanted to learn horseshoeing and thought Casey and Son Horseshoeing School in rural Walker County, Ga., would be the best choice.
So she saved her money for more than a year and drove five hours from South Carolina to study there this summer.
She said her excitement turned to terror, though, when the school’s 68-year-old founder and owner, Ralph Casey, drunkenly propositioned her in sexually explicit language at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 4.
“I was really scared and thought he might try to assault me. I went inside, locked my door and slept with my knife for protection,” Myers wrote in a statement that’s been distributed to law enforcement authorities.
Myers is one of three young women who allege Casey has propositioned or punched them.