CHICAGO TRIBUNE (Illinois) 22 August 08 Scales of justice tilt to the scaly - West Dundee woman ordered to collect roadkill for stabbing estranged husband's pet lizards (Cliff Ward)

A judge had a different idea Thursday when prosecutors suggested community service work in an animal shelter for a West Dundee woman who stabbed her estranged husband's pet lizards.

"That would be sort of like putting the defendant in a candy store," said Kane County Judge Grant Wegner, who instead ordered Sara Tinsley to spend 50 hours collecting roadkill.

Tinsley, 38, pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty in May. She was arrested in April 2007 and later admitted that she stabbed the two bearded dragon lizards with a kitchen knife after a dispute with her estranged husband the day before.

Police were called and found one lizard dead. But the other was still alive in a garbage can at the couple's West Dundee home. The reptile survived after emergency surgery.

Tinsley was ordered to work with a road crew collecting dead animals as part of her sentence. She also was told to pay $604 in veterinary bills, $375 in fees and court costs. She must undergo an anger-management evaluation and was placed on probation for 18 months.

"I'm very, very sorry for my actions," Tinsley told the judge. "I've been around animals my whole life and never had an incident."

Prosecutors presented to the court a letter from Thomas Davis, a member of the Chicago Herpetological Society, who urged the judge to treat injuries to lizards as seriously as he would more traditional pets.

"I can tell you from experience the tears I cried over a 5-foot water monitor were every bit as hard as the one I cried over a 125-pound Rottweiler. . . . Scales, fur and feathers—it all hurts just the same when your pet dies," he wrote.

Tinsley's former husband, Harry Tinsley, 38, attended the sentencing. He wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of a bearded dragon lizard and a caption that read, "Here's lickin' at you, kid."

It was clear he still grieved for his lizards, Ethel, who died, and the surviving Fred.

In a letter to the court, he wrote, "Ethel especially loved strawberries, which we found hilarious because her hips would get red and it looked like she was wearing lipstick."

Attorney Todd Cohen, who represented Sara Tinsley, said his client had led a law-abiding life but snapped after the domestic incident. The couple were divorcing at the time, prosecutors said.

Harry Tinsley pleaded guilty to domestic battery in March. The couple have divorced since then, and both have remarried.

"There was some justice done," Harry Tinsley said. "But I don't think it was enough for what she did."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-lizard-lady-both-22aug22,0,6913363.story



BEACON NEWS (Aurora, Illinois) 22 August 08 Woman gets probation for stabbing husband's lizards (David Gialanella)

St. Charles Township: A Kane County woman who pleaded guilty to stabbing her husband's pet lizards could spend dozens of hours picking up dead animals from the roadside, according to the sentence she received on Thursday.

Sara Tinsley, 38, of West Dundee, was sentenced to 18 months of probation on one felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals. Authorities said she mauled her then-husband's two bearded dragons inside the couple's home following an argument.

One of the lizards died. The other survived after receiving medical treatment.

Kane County Judge Grant Wegner also ordered Tinsley to undergo an anger management evaluation, pay the $604 bill from an exotic animal hospital and complete 50 hours of community service by helping highway workers collect animal carcasses from the road.

Animal rights activists had demanded heavy punishment for Tinsley, but Tinsley's lawyer argued that she was driven to violence by physical and emotional abuse by her husband.

"For whatever reason, this individual's anger was so great, it was directed at these companion animals," said Assistant State's Attorney Nemura Pencyla at the sentencing hearing. "And they were butchered."

Authorities said that on April 2, 2007, Tinsley called West Dundee Police to report a domestic altercation that occurred a day earlier. When they arrived at the home, officers saw blood on the floor and discovered the 2-foot-long reptiles -- named Fred and Ethel -- in a trash can, a police report stated.

She apparently had argued with her husband over the phone and attacked the animals with a kitchen knife, then threw them against the wall.

Her ex-husband, Harry Tinsley, 38, of West Chicago, was charged last year with misdemeanor battery for pushing and choking his wife during an altercation. He pleaded guilty in March 2008.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/1121076,2_1_AU22_LIZARD_S1.article

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