Ten years ago, Brandon “Brannu” Fulton bought 27 acres of land for $150,000 on the corner of Butner Road and Camp Creek Parkway in what was then unincorporated Fulton County. He wanted a space where he could spend his days in nature and ride horses. 

Fulton, 44, credits his grandfather with introducing him to horseback riding, an unusual activity for a boy growing up in Brownsville, one of the most violent neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1980s and ’90s. Horses were his escape.

As a kid, he aspired to have a life where he could spend the majority of his time outdoors riding horses. When he purchased the land in 2016, with money he earned from stunt work, that dream seemed within reach. But almost immediately, what he thought was going to be the beginning of a journey to turn his undeveloped land into a horse ranch named Believe Kingdom, soon spiraled into years of criminal accusations and legal disputes.

A few months after the purchase, Fulton County charged him with six misdemeanors, citing local ordinance violations like improper storage of a vehicle, building without a permit, and failure to maintain property.

The following year, on April 22, 2017, Fulton County Animal Services arrested him and authorities charged him with felony cruelty to animals and seized all seven of his horses, according to federal court records.

Fulton told Capital B Atlanta he was shocked by the arrest. He said it didn’t matter that he was a law-abiding citizen: If the government wants to inconvenience him and waste his time, it can.

“What I realized is that they’re not used to people coming in and speaking [up]. Most people that go into Fulton County, they just want to pay their fine and get out the door,” Fulton said.

A year later the charges were dropped, but Fulton’s horses were never returned — and the county has refused to pay him the $250,000 his lawyers estimate they are worth.

When Capital B Atlanta reached out to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office for comment, a spokesperson responded via email: “This case was dismissed under the prior administration, and because related litigation involving the County remains active, we are unable to comment further.”

Beunca Gainor, a lifelong animal lover from Bankhead and former officer with Fulton County Animal Services from 2011 to 2018, told Capital B Atlanta she was assigned to look into Fulton before the 2017 cruelty to animals case.

“When I first got his case in my hand, it sounded like he was a shitty person. I already made a judgment in my head,” she recalled.

But when Gainor went out to his property for the first time, she said she realized that he had a good spirit and was just trying to do his best.

“I decided, you know what? I’m not going to let these white people tell me what to do. I’m not going to police my people,” she said.

Gainor said that decision, along with her inability to keep up with her work load due to being “overworked and underpaid,” are what led to her being fired from animal services in 2018.

Fighting for his horses

After three years of Fulton pleading with the county to either return his horses or compensate him for the loss, he sued the county in 2020 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. There he ran into another obstacle.

Although the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees “just compensation” for any private property seized by the government, it doesn’t provide any legal mechanism for how to get that compensation. The court ruled against him on that basis.

Fulton’s lawyers filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. After oral arguments, but before a decision was made, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a unanimous decision in a related case, DeVillier v. Texas, where property owners had a portion of their land turned into a flood plain in order to protect a highway.

The 2024 ruling gave DeVillier and other plaintiffs the ability to sue Texas for compensation under established state law, but it did not address the issue of a federal lawsuit under the Fifth Amendment. But unlike in Texas, Georgia law does not have an established process for property owners to recuperate losses from a government entity.

When the 11th Circuit ruled in July that Fulton could move forward with a lawsuit against the county for the value of the horses, citing the Fifth Amendment’s Takings clause, it handed him a major legal victory.

A spokesperson for Fulton County Attorney Y. Soo Jo told Capital B Atlanta they cannot comment on pending litigation.

If the county decides to appeal the case up to the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision could set a new legal precedent allowing property owners to sue for confiscated property.

Fulton’s situation caught the attention of local filmmaker Adelin Gasana and producer Julia Griggs, who premiered a documentary about Fulton and his legal battles called Brannu: The Urban Horseman at the Tara Theatre in Atlanta earlier this fall.

“One of the biggest features of the documentary is the concept of eminent domain, gentrification, and rapid urban development. And Brandon’s right in the crosshairs [of all three],” Gasana told Capital B Atlanta.

Fulton’s property sits at the intersection of two main roads that Gasana described as prime real estate. But it is Fulton’s determination to maintain his land that inspired Gasana to spend two years following him for the film.

“This documentary is an inspirational piece. Not only to go all in on your dreams, but then to take all the trials and tribulations and say I’m still going forward. I’m still doing this with a smile,” he said. 

The fate of the horses

While the misdemeanor charges and the animal cruelty charges were later dropped, Fulton County Animal Services had already sold Fulton’s horses.

Fulton County Animal Services did not respond to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment.

One of the horses that was taken from Fulton’s property and featured prominently in local news stories at the time had some health issues and was underweight, but Fulton said the horse had been recently given to him in that condition by a friend who couldn’t take care of it.

“[My friend] confessed to the DA, but did they arrest him? No,” he said. “Because it was about the land from the beginning.”

Since purchasing the land, the majority of the misdemeanor charges and ordinance violations against Fulton have been dismissed. But he was fined $1,000 for animal cruelty in 2017 and fined $100 for having a domestic animal or livestock at large twice in 2024.

Although South Fulton didn’t incorporate until the year after he purchased the land, it quickly got involved in what Gasana called a campaign to drain his pockets and his resources.

Fulton said he continues to deal with tickets from local authorities that cite him for violating the rules of what can be done on residential property, even though his land is zoned as agricultural.

His legal troubles have been time-consuming. He said that earlier this year he showed up to court multiple times to handle a case, but it would be last on the docket. His case wouldn’t be called before the court closed at the end of the day.

The most recent charge stemmed from the burns he has been doing to clear the property. He had a permit for the burns. 

“When the police came, I showed them my permit and they still wrote the ticket. Why? To inconvenience me.”

The South Fulton Police Department confirmed that South Fulton Police and Fire responded to Fulton’s land on Feb 24, 2025, after receiving reports of a fire on the property. 

“The property owner presented a burn permit, but fire officials determined the property owner was burning items that were not environmentally safe and that it ultimately caused the fire to spread to a neighboring property. The fire official on scene did not have a citation book, and requested to have the property owner cited. Police officers on scene then issued the city-ordinance citation at Fire’s direction,” a spokesperson for the police department said in a statement.

The case was later dismissed.

Making Believe Kingdom a community resource

While Fulton awaits the next stage in his legal battle to get the county to pay him for the value of the seized horses, he’s back to work on his property, focused on transforming undeveloped land into a place where the local community can enjoy the outdoors and learn about horses.

Currently, he leads trail rides with the five new horses he bought after the seizure, and envisions Believe Kingdom as a place where anybody can get into horseback riding regardless of their background. 

“I want to do a lot of different things so it’s like this city can have something unique. So when people come to Atlanta or stay at the hotel down the block, they can say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the ranch.’”

For Gainor, the former animal control officer, she said she believes the time she spent at Believe Kingdom saved her life. Her first recreational visit was after she was fired from Animals Services while she was still recovering from an electrical fire that destroyed her home in 2015.

“I was frazzled and frantic and emotionally broken down. I didn’t have any self-esteem, and the way that he talked to me, he was in tune with the emotional aspect and not trying to be all hard and macho,” she said. “He didn’t ask me for money or anything like that. He was just like whenever you need to come and take a breath, you can always come here.”

Since that time, Gainor has become a vocal supporter of Fulton’s and said she owes a debt to him for helping her come out of a deep depression. The 36-year-old now works as a catering chef and operates FurEver I Love Atlanta, a nonprofit that connects pet owners with food and other resources they need to care for their animals. 

As for Fulton, most nights he sleeps outdoors with the horses beside a fire fueled by the trees he’s cut down to keep him warm. Camp Creek runs along the northern side of the property, which is still heavily forested except for the few acres closest to Butner Road that currently look like a construction site when seen from the street.

This is where Fulton plans to put an arena, stables, and a parking area so he can teach riding lessons. Down the line, he’d eventually like to add a range where people can practice archery, too.

“If you go to Chastain Park [in Buckhead] right now, they have a beautiful horse place, swimming, tennis, everything right there in the community. Why can’t we make South Fulton like that with all this green space? Where people can jog and walk and have those same amenities,” he said.

Audree’auna Morris-Barrett, a professional horticulturist who lives and works in Atlanta, told Capital B Atlanta that her first time at Believe Kingdom and riding a horse as an adult was an amazing experience. So the next time, she brought her 12-year-old and 8-year-old with her.

“My children have always wanted to ride horses, but we just couldn’t afford it, and we didn’t know anybody with horses that we could ride,” she said.

Morris-Barrett said it was magical when she was able to bring her kids because Fulton not only gave them the chance to ride but also taught them about the horses.

“It was a very educational moment because he really talked them through everything about the horses, what they like to eat, their different personalities, their names,” she said. The horses  “were trying to eat everything on the trail, and he was telling them to be calm and how to work with the horse and guide them in the way that you want to walk.”

The experience made Morris-Barrett believe in his vision, and since then she has spent some of her weekends at Believe Kingdom to help Fulton beautify the property.

Fulton said he hopes to use Believe Kingdom to reach kids who are growing up under the same circumstances he faced in Brooklyn.

“I’ve been around drugs and everything. My father went to prison three times,” he said of his childhood. “I can relate to the boy that’s from Campbellton Road in a way that Buckhead Betty can’t.”

Eventually, Fulton said he’d like to hire some of the kids who live in the area to work or do community service. He’s also open to hosting the kids housed at Atlanta Youth Development Center, a juvenile detention facility 10 minutes down the road.

“I feel like I’m a perfect fit because I’ve been in the system. Not for murder or anything like that, but I can relate to the frustration you feel of what the system can do to you,” Fulton said.