Local News in Brief : Not Guilty Plea in Animal Abuse Case
An Eagle Rock woman pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that she kept her elderly mother and 72 dogs, cats and birds in squalid conditions at her vermin-infested home.
Rebecca Courlie, 41, was not at her Los Angeles Municipal Court arraignment but entered her plea through her attorney. Her trial on 77 misdemeanor counts was then scheduled for Sept. 19.
Courlie fled her home Aug. 10 when city animal control workers, responding to a complaint from neighbors, arrived at her home to inspect it. They found Courlie’s 78-year-old mother and 72 cats, dog and birds living in filthy conditions in the vermin-infested house.
The animals were impounded and more than 30 were too ill to be treated and had to be destroyed by animal control workers.
Courlie surrendered in Municipal Court last Thursday and was released on $15,000 bail.
Her attorney, Meir Westreich, declined to say where his client had been since she fled. In fleeing, Courlie rammed the workers’ truck with her car several times.
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