TIMES FILE PHOTO

James Tait

James Tait, 58, who was convicted of trespassing at an Enumclaw farm where a man was fatally injured while having sex with a horse in 2005, pleaded guilty on Monday to having sex with animals on a Tennessee farm.

Tait pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity with animals, said Maury County Detective Sgt. Terry Chandler. Tait was given credit for the time he had already spent in jail and was released on probation. He is under supervision by state probation authorities, Chandler said

Tait was arrested and charged in October with another man, Kenny Thomason, 44, who lived with Tait. Thomason pleaded guilty to the same charge in Maury County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Chandler said. Thomason was also placed on probation.

"I'm happy this is over," Chandler said. "It has brought a lot of embarrassment and humiliation to the community and the town."

Chandler said that Thomason owns the farm and the animals -- 13 horses, Shetland ponies, goats and dogs. Chandler said that it appears the two men had been having sex with the ponies and dogs as well as well as larger horses.

Chandler believes that the farm was being advertised as some sort of bestiality destination -- just as happened in the Enumclaw case. Chandler said that detectives have recovered several videotapes of men having sex with animals on the farm.

"We do have video, we just don't know who they [the other men] are," Chandler said.

When Enumclaw police searched Tait's rented Enumclaw farm in July 2005 they found hundreds of videotapes depicting men having sex with horses. One video showed a 45-year-old Gig Harbor man having sex with a horse shortly before he died of acute peritonitis due to perforation of the colon.

Authorities charged Tait with trespassing at a neighbor's farm on the night of the Gig Harbor man's death. Tait's neighbors told The Times in 2005 that they didn't know that people had been sneaking into their barn to have sex with their horses.

Tait entered an Alford plea to the criminal trespassing charge in King County District Court on Nov. 29, 2005. Under the plea, he did not admit guilt but acknowledged a jury would likely convict him.