Pay for bad taxidermy job?

Illinois. I put half the payment down for a Turkey mount. I payed the other half with a check when I picked the bird up. The mount was a terrible job, and we called the taxidermist and told him that we are not satisfied at all and do not think it is worth the full amount he charged. He suggested that he could try to fix it, but since he could not get it done right the first time, why would it look any better this time. He asked if I wanted him to tear the check up and I said yes. We decided to stop payment on the check because we were not sure if he would try to cash the check. Now two months later we got a certifed letter from him saying we fraudulently stopped payment on a check and have 10 days to pay or this will go to the prosecuting Attorneys office and criminal charges can be issued. This was issues by him from Maywood, Missouri.

I have talked with him after I recieved this letter, he wants more money or the bird returned to him. I do not wish to put anymore money into this, but if I give the bird back, I payed a couple of hunderd dollars to receive nothing and have my first trophy
gobbler ruined. If I do return the turkey, how can I make sure he would not still try to file fraudulent stopped payment? Do we just write a statement that we returned the bird and have him sign it too?

What are my options??

My response:

Why did you pay him the balance when you picked up the bird? Obviously, the job was poor when you saw the final product - - so why didn't you say anything at the time of pick-up, and why did you pay?

IAAL

And, as the judge will ask, "Why did you not give him the chance to correct the errors?"

There are a couple of reasons I left the check with him. I was caught of guard by the poor quality. I haven't been to his workplace before (he operates from his single wide trailer where he lives too) and was shocked by the conditions. There was a deer hide laying in the snow and an old deer neck and ribcage hanging from a tree. I had my two little girls with me and did not want any confrontation. I also wanted my wife to take a look at it and get her opinion.
We did not want him to try and fix it because he said the only thing that he could try to fix is the tail feathers (so that they would line up and not be staggerd). He said he did not know how to fix the rest. He then asked if he could do a deer mount for us instead. In talking to him I did not think that he could have done much to improve it.

What a turkey!