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CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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When you vote, you are voting on whether or not the punishment fit the crime, NOT on the severity of the case itself. If you feel the sentence was very weak, you would vote 1 star. If you feel the sentence was very strong, you would vote 5 stars.
Please vote honestly and realistically. These ratings will be used a a tool for many future programs, including a "Peoples Choice" of best and worst sentencing, DA and judge "report cards", and more. Try to resist the temptation to vote 1 star on every case, even if you feel that 100 years in prison isnt enough.
Case #869 Rating: 2.6 out of 5
Hoarding 59 cats
Salt Lake City, UT (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jan 31, 2003
County: Salt Lake
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Sydney McDonald
A northern Utah judge has ordered a woman convicted of 59 counts of animal cruelty never to own cats again. First District Judge Clint Judkins gave 52-year-old Sydney McDonald a two-day jail sentence, plus fines and restitution of almost $8,000 - and he said her pet-owning days are over.
''If I find out 10 years down the road you have a cat, you could go back to jail,'' 1st District Court Judge Clint S. Judkins warned.
McDonald was found guilty of 59 misdemeanor animal cruelty charges, in what the judge called a case of ''cat hoarding.'' The 59 ailing animals were found in a trailer near the town of Paradise. Most of them had to be euthanized.
Some of the cats were strays that she had taken in, but others had apparently been trapped and taken from neighbors, according to court documents.
Judkins told McDonald: ''For the rest of your life, you're going to have nothing to do with any animals. You have some deep, deep problems, and part of the problem is that you don't recognize it,'' he said at the Monday sentencing.
The Salt Lake City woman was placed on two years of formal probation and 12 years of informal probation with the court. References |
