Woman Gets Probation For Animal Cruelty

A woman with a history of mental problems pleaded guilty Friday to abusing more than a dozen pets.

But Elizabeth Brown won't go to prison. She will be on probation for 24 months instead.

Brown, 64, was arrested Jan. 25, 2008, by Will County police and charged with cruelty to animals, a felony. Although court records list her address as 2217 Loganberry Lane in Joliet Township, she is living in Paxton.

A few days before her arrest and on one of the coldest days of the year, humane society investigators and Will County police seized 18 starving dogs -- animals that belonged to Brown -- from two locations. Most were in an unheated barn in Manhattan Township, and the others were in the yard of the empty house on Loganberry Lane. One dog lost part of an ear to frostbite.

Another had a baseball-sized tumor and glaucoma.

Authorities later removed 10 cats from inside the same unheated Joliet Township home.

Brown has a history of hoarding animals and has been charged and convicted of similar crimes in other Illinois counties.

She was scheduled to go to trial Monday but didn't show up for court. That morning, Dan Kennedy, her Joliet-based lawyer, told Will County Judge Richard Schoenstedt that his client had left him several telephone messages saying she'd recently had surgery, couldn't walk and wasn't coming to court.

So Schoenstedt issued a no-bond warrant for Brown's arrest. She had a history of arriving to court late or not appearing at all, he said.

Iroquois County police found out about the warrant and arrested Brown on Tuesday. They brought her to the Will County jail Wednesday.

When Brown appeared in court Friday, she was wearing a red jail uniform and using a wheelchair. Will County Assistant State's Attorney Nicole Moore told the judge that prosecutors were willing to accept a plea of guilty from Brown and a sentence of probation. She cited Brown's poor health and the animals' survival as reasons for the light punishment.

Being in jail seemed to upset Brown, and she tried to explain her past to the judge. He wasn't interested.

"You didn't show up for your jury trial. That is why there was a warrant issued for your arrest," Schoenstedt said.

That wasn't enough for Brown, who continued to plead for mercy.

"I'll never ever miss a court date again," she said.

Later in the hearing, Brown blamed her problems on someone else. At the time of her arrest, a family member had cancer, she said, and a friend was supposed to take care of the dogs and cats.

"I'm just so sorry that my poor animals had to suffer like that," she said.

The judge told her that she couldn't own or live with any animals again. And if she didn't meet with her probation officer Monday, or if she violated any other terms of the plea deal, he could send her to prison.

"The court is going to accept these negotiations only because these poor animals survived and were adopted out to loving families," the judge said.

Outside the courtroom, Kennedy talked briefly about the case, emphasizing the fact that Brown couldn't have any more pets.

"It's like an order of protection against her for animals," he said.