Des Plaines woman guilty of horse abuse

A 37-year-old Des Plaines woman faces up to a year in jail after being convicted of animal cruelty and neglect of five horses — two of which had to be euthanized — in McHenry County.

Jamie Koy, of the 1500 block of Miner Street, was convicted of eight courts of animal cruelty and 16 counts of neglect after a jury trial, the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office said.

Koy and another woman, Shannon Riley, 22, of the 1400 block of South State Street, Chicago, were arrested last fall after sheriff’s deputies found 14 malnourished and poorly cared for horses in the 6100 block of East Hillside Drive near Crystal Lake.

Riley is next due in court on animal cruelty and neglect charges on June 8.

McHenry County Animal Control seized five horses and the Hooved Animal Humane Society of Woodstock and University of Wisconsin’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital worked to rehabilitate them.

However, two horses were in such bad shape they had to be euthanized,

Testimony from the trial showed those two horses only had a bone marrow fat content of 2.7 percent to 5.1 percent while the normal range in a healthy horse is 60 percent to 90 percent, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Koy will be sentenced by McHenry County Judge Charles P. Weech on July 21 and also faces a fine of up to $2,500.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Matt Ciesielski and Andrew Luther prosecuted the case.