JUDGE RITCHIE: ‘I don’t know how you could have looked at this animal and not taken immediate action.‘
LURAY, Jan. 14 — Following a two-hour hearing that included 45 minutes of deliberation in chambers on Wednesday afternoon, Judge Clarke A. Ritchie sentenced Sarah Beth Maiden to five years in prison for felonious animal cruelty that lead to the Oct. 24, 2024 euthanization of her German Shepard “Rosie.”
“You are convicted of a horrible act,” Judge Ritchie told Maiden as he explained the thoughts that went into his deliberation. He noted the Shenandoah woman’s difficult situation — being a single mother who was nine months pregnant with two other small children at home when law enforcement forced her seek medical attention for the depleted dog. The judge acknowledged that she showed compassion for others through testimony of how she cared for her 88-year-old grandparents, as well as her brother, who recently had a liver transplant — and was the person who first published images of a depleted Rosie on social media that got the public’s attention…