Ashley Difelice had yet another appearance in court at 8:30 this morning. There were MANY people on the Zoom call to witness the proceedings, and from what I could tell of all the people on the call that showed up for their scheduled court appearances, Ashley was the only person who had GUESTS - people there specifically to see the outcome of HER court proceedings. So many people are invested in this cruelty case, from the people who helped clean up the property and rehome the animals, the sanctuaries that took in the survivors, Ashley's former donors that she duped and stole money from, and people from all over the world that became aware of the case and watched everything unfold online for the past YEAR. The support that all of the victims (both animal and human) involved in this case received this morning, prior to this morning and beyond is truly wonderful. Even if Ashley didn't care about the animals or her former friends and colleagues back then and doesn't care about any of them now, WE DO.
To sum up today's court though, not much happened regarding an outcome - the case was delayed again, BUT a new prosecution team has been assigned to it. The Prosecutor said that her team wanted to take additional time to review everything which is most likely the reason for the most recent delay AND she made sure to state that they would be pressing for the "maximum penalty" for the 17 animal cruelty charges. While yet another delay is disappointing, the rest is good news! It sounds like the team is taking this seriously and wants justice.
The judge also stated that if there is no outcome by the next date that the case will go to trial, mentioning that it has been almost a year. (As of this writing her next court appearance has yet to be scheduled, but I will keep everyone posted when that is announced). Her lawyer will want to avoid a trial if at all possible, so this deadline is also good news!
The above image depicts the two sheep Brienne and Norman, both mentioned and pictured in the original petition and both rescued from the former Twist of Fate "sanctuary". Sadly, both of them passed away shortly after they were rescued as their bodies could not recover from all the damage that Ashley Difelice caused, and this design was created as a way to honor their memory and to show our support to their families.
If you would also like to purchase the above design on a t-shirt in memory of Norman and Brienne, please click here to shop the styles available on Bonfire.com.
All proceeds from the sales on Bonfire will be split between Fawn's Fortress (Brienne's rescue family) and Goats of Anarchy (Norman's rescue family)!
If you're looking for other ways to support the animal or human victims from this case, you can also help out Rancho Relaxo, the animal sanctuary that took in several of the survivors and was tasked with taking on the mortgage of the former Twist of Fate property next door, plus all the bills involved in cleaning up the property and home and fixing it up to make it livable and usable once again. A great way to support them is to join the Rancho Relaxo Takeover Patreon (formerly the Twist of Fate Patreon but now ONLY run by Rancho - Ashley does NOT have access to the account or any of the funds). Click the link below:
https://www.patreon.com/RanchoRelaxoTakeover/posts
You can join and support at several different tiers, but even $1 a month goes a long way towards the care of the animals and the property!
You can also join the Rancho Relaxo Patreon by clicking here.
Also, if you haven't listened to it already: Caitlin, who along with her husband Len was the first on the scene at Twist of Fate recorded a podcast back in August of 2022 (about 2 weeks after everything first came to light) detailing the whole story of what they saw, what happened that first night, their confrontation with Ashley and more. It's a little over an hour long and just to warn you - it's very upsetting to listen to as it has a lot of very raw emotion, but it gives a lot of details about the case and might answer some questions. You can listen to that here.
I will post another update once Ashley Difelice's next court date has been scheduled.
Thank you all so much for being here, for signing the petition and for sharing the petition. Please continue to share it through email, text, and any and all social platforms to help get the word out.