Yesterday February 22nd, 2024 was Ashley DiFelice's final court date for the Twist of Fate animal cruelty case where she was convicted and sentenced. A summary: Ashley was charged with (only) 17 counts of animal cruelty and she was found guilty for 8 of them. She was sentenced to 60 days community service and fined a total of $16,000. Of the $16,000, $12,500 of that is to be paid to the local Salem Humane Society. It was not stated where the remaining $3,500 would go. In total she owes $29,764.00 in fees and court costs, plus whatever she had to pay to her lawyer.
The parties involved in yesterday's proceedings include: Ashley DiFelice, Ashley's lawyer: Mr. Bill Wackowski, the prosecution team: Ms. Ekaterine Eleftheriou and Ms. Barbara Garozzo, and Judge Martin Whitcraft.
I wanted to get this written and published yesterday so that I could let everyone know the outcome as soon as possible, but honestly - I was too angry. Partly because of the outcome, and partly because I didn't yet have a lot of the information. While it is a guilty verdict and this is great, her punishment leaves a lot to be desired for her victims.
On the one hand I have been preparing myself for this. I see a lot of animal cruelty cases and no one is punished anywhere near the level that they should be for hurting and/or murdering animals. Maybe if they were there wouldn't be so many repeat offenders of this crime. So I have been preparing myself for Ashley to get a mere slap on the wrist, or even for her to receive no punishment at all. After the court session was over (more on that later) I was flooded with anger, but also just felt kind of dead inside. Probably because I had prepared myself for disappointment and I was absolutely right to do this. I had a bad feeling that I would be right, but I didn't want to be. I think that because I had prepared myself was maybe the only reason why I didn't immediately break down sobbing. So I wanted to wait until I was in a better headspace to write this because I didn't want my anger to color this update too much.
It sort of worked, plus I had some additional information come in that helped. (I have been writing and re-writing this for over a day).
I'll get to the positives in a minute, but here is a rundown of everything that is negative or at least problematic with her sentencing:
1. Only 8 of the 17 charges were successful. First of all, Ashley should have been charged with AT LEAST 150+ counts of animal cruelty. Her 17 charges included one each for donkeys Benny and Forrest (now named Bonnie and Clyde), horses Grissom (Gandalf), Finn (Hoorah), Tommy, Buster, Stevie (Jovie), Johnny, Susie, Tegan (Apollo), Swayze (Brandy), Kuma (Bernie), Leo (Finneas), and Jack (Cash). She also received 1 charge for 4 goats whose body scores were deemed "inadequate", 1 charge for 12 of the potbelly pigs that had very low body scores, and 1 charge for neglecting to clean a pasture of debris and neglecting to provide an adequate shelter in that pasture. (If you'll recall, Ashley moved some animals to a different pasture WITH a shelter on the day of the inspection, presumably to avoid getting charged for that as well). Even just counting up the above animals and miscellany, she should have received 31 charges just for starters. But there were no charges for any of the numerous dead and decaying animals that were all over the property - there were so many bodies and they were scattered so far that the total number of dead couldn't even be counted. No charge for goat Johnny, who died the day after he was rescued because his body had already been put through too much because of Ashley's neglect and abuse and he could not recover. No charge for sheep Brienne or Norman, who died just weeks after they were rescued because their bodies could not recover. No charge for dog Bolt, horse River, or mini horse Thea, just to name a few examples of the animals that she didn't feed, didn't give fresh water, ignored their basic needs like farrier care and dental care, and ignored their medical needs, denying some of them much-needed surgeries. There were no charges for a single cow or sheep. 17 misdemeanor charges was and will always remain pathetic, and I blame local law enforcement and animal control for that. There should have been so many more charges, and they should have been felonies, not misdemeanors. We're waiting on confirmation for who/what the 8 charges were for, who was dropped, and why they were dropped. If/when I can obtain this info I will publish a separate update.
2. The judge did not issue any ban on Ashley "owning" or "possessing" animals. This is incredibly sad and frustrating. Ashley is just going to do this again. Animal abusers are ALWAYS repeat offenders*. Always. Especially if there is profit or the potential of profit involved. You can read an article detailing this here, and here is a great article/essay about why harsher punishments for first-time animal abusers are absolutely necessary.
3. The judge did not order her to surrender any animals that may or may not still be in her care. I don't care if she has a "pet" fruit fly - that fruit fly and any other animals that come near her are NOT safe.
4. 60 days community service as the punishment for multiple murders (even as a maximum penalty) is an absolute joke. This is nothing. While she was killing animals she felt no remorse, after she was caught she felt no remorse, and I doubt that after her 60 days of community service that she will feel any remorse either. This "punishment" won't work, and she'll most likely just end up doing this all over again. Also - isn't she a danger to the community? She has proven over and over that she shouldn't be anywhere near animals or children. Why is serving the "community" - of all things - part of her punishment?
5. There was no jail time. None. Again - she is a proven danger to society. She murdered dozens of animals and tried to kill over 100 more. Her actions were deliberate, premeditated, and she fully meant to do all of this. As animals were dead and dying back on her property, she could not have cared less as it just would have gotten in the way of her good times and interrupted her vacations. Also: She locked animals up - shouldn't the punishment fit the crime?? More about jail a little later though...
6. I'm not sure what the thought process was in awarding the $12,500 to the Salem Humane Society, who did absolutely nothing with this case. Please don't get me wrong - ANY animals receiving donations and care is a wonderful thing, and I'm happy that animals will be getting these funds and not some other organization. However, the true benefactors of the money should be the sanctuaries and rescues who took in the surviving animals. THEY were the ones that got emotional trauma and PTSD from cleaning up the scene, THEY were the ones forced to use their own funds on therapists and lawyers, THEY were the ones that spent hours, days, weeks, and months cleaning and repairing the derelict property, THEY were the ones that took time away from their own sanctuaries and families to do this and to rehome the animals. THEY were the ones that had to foot the bills for all new vaccines, check-ups, dental appointments, shearing, farrier care, surgeries, medications, hay, and food for the animals, not to mention their ongoing care for the duration of their lives. This includes all of the above plus land and shelter - none of this is cheap, and all of these sanctuaries are non-profits, meaning that they run solely on donations. Even for the animals that passed away after they were rescued those sanctuaries had bills for surgeries, medications, and either end-of-life costs or the cost of removing and cremating their bodies. These rescues were Fawn's Fortress (Brienne the sheep) Goats of Anarchy (Norman the sheep) EZ's Rescue Ranch (goat Johnny), Road to Refuge Sanctuary (pig Waffles) and Rancho Relaxo, billed with the removal of all of the bodies in the "dead pile" at the former Twist of Fate property. I have linked their Instagram pages here if you would like to make a small donation or even just give them a follow to show your support! All of the other animals that call these sanctuaries home need funding and support too. Hopefully a class action lawsuit can take place so that all of the sanctuaries can recoup these funds from Ashley, even if it takes her the rest of her life to pay it off.
Now for the positives: Number one is a guilty verdict. A guilty verdict for multiple counts of animal cruelty will follow her around for the rest of her life. She has been convicted and will forever be known as an animal abuser.
Another good thing is that the prosecution is still pursuing additional charges and at a county level. I don't know the exact details of what these charges will be, when she will be charged or how many there will be, but I'm assuming that they're for child endangerment. We're hoping that these charges will bring harsher punishments more on the level of what she deserves for her numerous crimes (as in jail time and the removal of her children from her care).
Information is still coming in, and I just found out from a source that the judge gave her the highest punishment allowed by the state. This is great news! Judge Whitcraft has a history of taking animal abuse cases seriously, so it was a good thing that he was assigned to Ashley's case. However, I also found out that while the judge really wanted it as part of her sentence that jail was never actually on the table for Ashley as the state wouldn't allow it. This is BEYOND disappointing and does not set up for any possible rehabilitation for criminals either, whether or not that is even a possibility on a case by case basis. This could also explain why no animal ban was put into place - it might not have been warranted per the state, at least not YET.*
As far as the tax fraud and donor fraud/theft, I believe that that would be handled by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) on a much higher level than any county or state charges, but I'm not sure. Whether or not you are a former donor to Twist of Fate, you may also report her to the IRS for fraud since she was collecting donations as a 501c3 charity for over two years after losing her tax-free status. You can use the previously published instructions here. This linked update also includes more details about her fraudulent activities and financial crimes.
Regarding the events of the actual court appearance yesterday:
All of her court appearances for the last year and a half have been virtual, taking place on Zoom. The public has been permitted to dial in and watch each time, and the February 22nd hearing was no different. Just like all the other times, I signed in a little early for the 8:30am start time. Anyone there for Ashley's court appearance was moved to a separate online conference room, which was the standard protocol for all of her court dates. I then waited in the separate room for over 2 hours (along with many other people). It wasn't unusual to start late, but it was usually only around 20-30 minutes (one time Ashley's own lawyer was 30 minutes late). However, this was an unusually long time to be waiting!! I just figured that they were getting all of the other cases for the morning out of the way first since there were so many dialed in to see the outcome of Ashley's case.
We all waited over two hours only to have the Prosecutor, Ms. Ekaterine Eleftheriou, join us for about 60-90 seconds to let us know the verdict. Unlike every other single court appearance we were not permitted to watch. Thousands of people all over the world have been watching this case and waiting to see the outcome only to be denied that and only for her very last appearance, the most important hearing, where she was convicted and sentenced. This was maddening, to say the least. I don't know if Ashley spoke, what she said if she spoke, or if she was on camera. If she was, would it have made us feel better about her sentencing if we could have seen her smug face while it was read off to her? We'll never know. My best guess is that it was because of the sheer volume of people in attendance - there were more on the call yesterday than for any of her previous appearances. Some of us have also ordered transcripts of the hearing for any additional information.
On a personal note, I'm still really angry. And sad. I feel empty inside, and extremely defeated, deflated, and disappointed.
I'm so angry at the local law enforcement for not doing a better job and not issuing her gobs more animal cruelty charges than they did, and for not charging them as felonies. Her court case was tried in the same courts as traffic tickets, for sobbing out loud. I am seeing over and over that the state of New Jersey cares way more about protecting animal abusers than they care about protecting animals or getting any justice for animal or human victims. All of the rescues and sanctuaries and volunteers working on this case turned in so much proof. There were so, so many photos and videos of Ashley's abuse and other crimes. Medical records. Receipts. Ashley confessed and apologized to her former friends for what she did. A confession!! And still this is the outcome. Animal abuse needs to be taken more seriously, PERIOD. And yes, I'm also angry that the wrong people will be getting the money that is part of her sentence. But above all and most importantly, the majority of my anger is directed at Ashley DiFelice, convicted animal abuser - she's the reason that all of this happened in the first place.
On an even more personal note, in so many ways I feel like I failed. Aside from the disappointment in the verdict, this has been the hardest thing for me to reckon with. I mean I often feel like a failure, whether it's warranted or not, but I worked so hard on this. One of the many reasons why I wrote the petition in the first place was because this case was being almost completely ignored outside of the sanctuary world. There was zero coverage about it. I was trying to raise awareness about this case, other animal cruelty cases and how often stuff like this happens, how there are almost zero laws and measures in place to protect animals, and how prevalent animal cruelty and abuse is in other industries as well. And I knew. I knew that most likely the outcome of the case would be a discouragement and that I would feel like I personally failed, so I prepared myself for that too. But...it still cuts deep anyway.
For the last year and a half, I have had so many frustrations and have come up against wall after wall after wall with this case. I tried on FOUR separate occasions to bring it to the attention of the media and various animal rights groups and I was ignored. Even when I finally, FINALLY got someone's attention to write an article about it, people were declining to be interviewed. I was mercilessly harassed by friends and family for even writing this petition, to the point of me having to block them on social media (this is why I unfortunately had to either delete my accounts or make them private, a move which sadly overall hurt the petition). I've spent hours, days, weeks and months making notes, sorting notes, and researching a variety of topics. I reached out to numerous people and organizations both in and out of the animal rights fields to ask them to sign the petition and to share it to help raise awareness and was ignored over and over. I've asked questions that have been ignored. I have requested photos, videos, documents, etc and have been ignored. While there have been several people that have been incredibly helpful with info and the petition, the majority were just...not. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops or pull teeth to get help for the animal victims, but most of the time that's exactly what I had to do. As you can imagine, this was exhausting to have to do on a never-ending loop. I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here and I'm definitely not trying to make this about me because it absolutely isn't, I'm just trying to explain my feelings.
Don't get me wrong - I don't regret any of this and given the choice would still do it all over again for this case. After all, I'm not the victim here and anything "bad" or difficult that is inflicted on me because of this case is from my own choosing. It was my choice to write the petition, to use my time and resources for research, and to jump through all those figurative hoops. Her animal victims were never given a choice in anything and she forced them to suffer immensely, far FAR worse than anything that I had to go through or that her former friends or donors had to go through. Like I said - I made my choices and would make the same ones again.
However, believe it or not based on all that's written above, I am trying to focus on the positive. There was a conviction. She didn't get off on any technicality or other such nonsense. There was no plea deal. She'll be in debt for many years to come, even with just her $29,764.00 total and without including whatever she owes or already paid to her lawyer. According to the court documents she is on a payment plan to pay $300.00 per month starting on March 1, 2024. At $300/month, she'll be paying off her debt for about 8 years and 3 months. Plus - this conviction will follow her around for the rest of her life.
I am glad that I wrote the petition - for as difficult as it was for so many reasons I got to tell the stories of the animals, bring new people and donors to the sanctuaries that took in the surviving animals, and raise awareness about the horrors that animals go through in the farming, agriculture, racing, and riding industries. I got to educate people about veganism and what it truly means to be against animal use, abuse, cruelty, objectification and commodification and how easy it is to go vegan and live your life according to those morals and beliefs. Writing the petition and updates helped stop the consistent nightmares that I was having about this case after it first broke. Telling the stories of the animals that made it out alive and even the stories of the ones that didn't helped me heal. I got to watch the animals recover, gain weight, and start to trust and love their new human and animal families. Writing this helped bring me closure. I hope that at least something that I wrote or shared did the same for you.
You know there's a button on the main page of the petition where I can declare "victory", but I can't bring myself to click on it. While in many ways this has resulted in a victory, it is also very far from it. Community service and a fine isn't justice for her animal victims, either the ones that survived or the ones that didn't. This isn't justice for her son, whose physical, emotional, and psychological health was endangered while his own mother murdered and tried to kill so many of his own friends. (Though perhaps that will come later). This isn't justice for her human victims, her former friends that she deliberately deceived and left to clean up HER mess and take on HER financial burdens. This isn't justice for her former donors, some of whom contributed thousands of dollars to her, only for her to use that money only for self-serving purposes.
Thank you all so much for reading and following along with this horrific animal cruelty case. It's hard to believe that we waited for over a year and a half for THIS, but there is definitely a lot of good to come out of this too!
I will continue to keep you all posted on the information and updates from this case.
*Some more notes about repeat animal abuser offenders: There was the "Paws Ranch" cruelty case, where a "woman" named Delores Hanser was a repeat offender at starving and killing multiple horses. Animals were seized and she was eventually found guilty of 5 felony animal cruelty charges in superior court, thanks in large part due to the help of Allison of Red Feather Equine Sanctuary and Lesley of Bluemont Equine Sanctuary, who practically built the case for the prosecution themselves.
If you would like to help animals in some way, many of the sanctuaries and rescues that worked on the Twist of Fate cruelty case are in the middle of working on yet another cruelty case in New Jersey, and this "man" is a third time offender. His name is Michael B. Featherston of the former "Rooster's Ranch" faux "rescue". The only good news is that an animal ban for Featherston for the entire state of NJ was finally, FINALLY put into place. Sadly it apparently takes three offenses for this to occur, at least in this state. How many animals have to suffer and die in the meantime though?
So far most of the surviving animals from the third time offense case have been placed into new homes, but they're still looking for a sanctuary or private, loving home(s) to take in a few of the cows. The rescues that took in animals or are trying to get them placed need to raise funds ASAP to get them proper vetting, exams, dental and/or farrier care and in some cases emergency care. Please go to the websites and/or Instagram pages of the rescues and sanctuaries listed below to see where you can donate - I have linked both where applicable. Many of them are also currently hosting fundraisers on their Instagram profiles, and some of the animals will need monthly sponsors and/or farrier sponsors.
The sanctuaries and rescues that have stepped in to place animals, raise funds, or have taken in animals include:
Rancho Relaxo (@boochaces), who also took in 17 Twist of Fate survivors! Caitlin is also one of the main contacts if you have info on a home for the cows, who are running out of time before they are sadly sent to auction where there are no good or happy outcomes for them.
The Troll House Sanctuary (@thetrollhousesanctuary) adopted horse Sprite, their FIRST equine resident! They are also home to TOF pigs Laurel & Hardy.
Wild Life Wild Horses Fund (@wlwh_fund), home to a horse that will be named soon as well as TOF horse survivors River and Yuma.
Rising Starr Horse Rescue (@risingstarrhorserescue) pulled 2 horses from the third time offender case and also helped pull, rehab and rehome 10 TOF horses!
Color of Heaven Farm (@colorofheavenfarm) took in 2 potbelly pigs who they named Eleanor Pigby (who could be pregnant) and Lovely Rita. Such cute names!!
Rescue Me Ranch (@rescuemeranch) took in two goats that they named Gary and Dexter.
Eastern Snout Pigs (@easternsnoutpigs) took in 2 pigs.
Sowa Goat Sanctuary (@sowagoatsanctuary) has a special needs goat that is currently in the hospital and will also be named soon. Sowa also took TOF sheep Artemis and Apollo.
Critter Creek Farm Sanctuary (@crittercreekfarmsanctuary) is taking in two of the cows!
Please help if you can...thank you!!
In case you missed them before, you can read the stories of the animals that made up the 17 animal cruelty charges against Ashley DiFelice here: Benny & Forrest, Tommy, Jovie, Suzie-Buster-Cash-Johnny-Hoorah-Swayze-Grissom-Tegan (these 8 are all in the same update), Leo, and Kuma.