By The Vanguard Staff
WETUMPKA, AL — It may be the season of giving, but two women—one an octogenarian—were sentenced to jail here earlier this month for feeding starving cats in this city, just north of Montgomery.
The two Alabama women were convicted of misdemeanors because they fed stray cats on public land, getting them spayed and neutered as well, to reduce the feral population in a humane way.
Wetumpka Municipal Judge Jeff Courtney, after a short bench trial, ruled Beverly Roberts, 85, guilty of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. Mary Alston, 61, was found guilty of criminal trespassing and interfering with governmental operations.
Judge Courtney sentenced both women to 10 days in jail. The jail sentence was suspended, but each accused must serve two years of unsupervised probation, pay a $100 fine and court costs.
The women said they will appeal.
The two “criminals” were arrested and handcuffed by local police in June and taken directly to jail, but Wetumpka Police Chief Greg Benton justified the no nonsense jailing, noting, according to local news reports, “feeding cats had created a nuisance because it attracted more animals to the area.”
He argued the “cat ladies” had been “repeatedly” warned to stop prior to being arrested.
Defense attorneys describe the women, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, as “animal lovers reaching into their own pockets to meet a need. Sweet ladies who didn’t deserve the treatment they received. Now they are branded with arrest and criminal records.”
Terry Luck, an attorney for one of the women, said the women were “performing a public service by trapping stray cats and having them neutered and spayed.
“There was absolutely no reason for any of this to happen,” Luck said. “They were feeding (expletive) cats. They were trapping the cats to take them to be fixed. Beverly and Mary were actually helping the city out. By getting the cats spayed or neutered, they were helping to control the population of the feral cats.
The attorney added, “With everything going on in Wetumpka, it took three strapping officers to arrest an 84-year-old and 60-year-old? Really? Because of feeding cats?”
Luck told media outlets the arrests are unlawful and officers used “physical abuse” on Roberts and Alston. Both women claimed they incurred bruises on their arms and their wrists during the arrests.
Luck maintained research of Wetumpka’s ordinances failed to uncover any law barring the feeding of feral cats.
The bodycam footage shows an officer speaking to another officer, explaining, “You need to know how to do this,” he said. “Why don’t you tell her to get the f— out, and don’t come back.”
The arrests took place, apparently, minutes after an officer is seen on bodycam footage, stating to Roberts—who’s now 85, and is 5-4, 130 pounds: “It’s going to get ugly if you don’t stop.”
Roberts then turned to the officer, slapped her car keys into his hand, and called him a “son of a b—-.” Both women’s cars were then towed.
According to local news, “both women were taken to the county jail, where they were fingerprinted, photographed and booked. They spent several hours in the jail as bond was arranged. Roberts became so upset she said that she passed out and was left on the floor for several minutes before jail personnel came to check on her.”
Neither woman has ever been in trouble before. Roberts is a disabled veteran, serving in the U.S. Army for 20 years before retiring as a sergeant major. Alston is retired from a Montgomery orthopedics office.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Roberts said in a later interview. “All we want to do is feed starving cats. I don’t know how anyone could see starving animals and not want to help.”
When the officers first approached her that morning, Alston thought they had confused her for someone else.
“I was terrified,” she told the Montgomery Advertiser. “As far as I knew they had mistaken me for someone else who was in trouble. It was degrading to be treated like that. It’s humiliating, our friends know what happened. It’s like I’m being treated as a criminal for helping innocent animals.”
TNR, or trap, neuter and return, involves the women paying for the cat food and neutering of cats. If they can’t find homes for the cats once they are “fixed,” the cats go back to the area where they were trapped, but can’t contribute to the population of strays.
The two women said they named most of the cats, and are “devastated” that they have been unable to feed or come to the aid of the cats since their arrest.
“I drive by and see them and it just breaks my heart,” Roberts said. Being barred from caring for the cats has “taken away her purpose,” Luck said of Roberts.
Luck added, “She’s a bit of a squeaky wheel in Wetumpka when it comes to animal welfare issues. She pushed to get an ordinance passed that bans dogs from being tied up or tethered. She’s a regular at City Council meetings where she calls attention to incidents of animal abuse or cruelty in the city.”
“Beverly’s a pain in the neck, but she’s a good pain in the neck,” Luck noted. “That’s why she’s been singled out, because she holds the city accountable when it comes to animal welfare issues.”
What a travesty. How was this a wise exercise of prosecutorial discretion? I bet the lousy prosecutor pressed this case only because of the widespread condemnation of the dumb cops.