Kane animal neglect case headed to trial
Stacy Fiebelkorn, the Elgin woman charged in March 2014 with abuse and neglect of more than 90 animals, requested a jury trial Tuesday on the charges.
She appeared before Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler. Her next court date is 1:30 p.m. March 19 in Room 209 of the Kane County Judicial Center.
Prosecutor Joseph Cullen told Tegeler he expects a trial would take several days.
"This is not really a typical misdemeanor trial," Cullen said.
Last fall her main attorney, Jamie Wombacher, said she asked prosecutors if they wanted to settle the case with a negotiated plea. Another attorney from Wombacher's firm appeared in court Tuesday.
Cullen refused to confirm or deny if his office had offered a plea deal. "We do not comment on plea negotiations," he said after Fiebelkorn's appearance.
Fiebelkorn faces misdemeanor charges of failure of an owner to provide adequate food, water and shelter, and abuse.
Kane County officials removed more than 90 animals from her custody last March, after finding 12 dead animals, including horses, at farms she rented in Maple Park and Hampshire.
She also had donkeys, goats, llamas, alpacas, turkeys, chickens, ducks and rabbits. Many were part of the Mini Zoo Crew, a traveling petting zoo she and her mother owned.
The then-director of Kane County Animal Control, Robert Sauceda, reported several weeks later that another horse had died. But one of Fiebelkorn's attorneys disputed that, citing a May investigation by the Kane County Sheriff's Office into allegations Sauceda had lied about the horse's status. No charges have been brought against Sauceda. He was suspended last April, and quit in May.