Man who kicked a steer in the head at a suburban backyard rodeo is acquitted on an animal cruelty charge

There doesn’t seem to be much debate over whether 68-year-old Socorro Barrientos repeatedly kicked a steer in the head last year at a backyard rodeo in the far northwest suburbs, which led to an animal cruelty charge against him. Instead, in explaining a not guilty verdict rendered this past week in Barrientos’ case, McHenry County Judge Justin Hansen focused heavily on how the kicks landed and were delivered, with drone video showing the steer laying just outside the corral unable, or…