Local News in Brief : No Contest Plea in Animal Neglect Case
A woman accused last year of performing religious sacrifices of barnyard animals in the yard of her Hawthorne home has pleaded no contest to a charge of animal neglect.
Catalina Sierra, 56, entered the plea last week in Inglewood Municipal Court as part of an agreement that included dismissal of four other misdemeanor charges. She will return to Judge John J. Lynch’s court March 14 for sentencing. She faces up to six months in County Jail.
Although Sierra denied it, agents for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said last year that she used her home to perform sacrifices for Santeria, an Afro-Cuban folk religion.
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