Ex-NI Couple Guilty Of Animal Cruelty
Cheryl Lee Criswell wipes her eyes as attorneys give their opening statements, in Kalispell, Mont., Tuesday. After two hours of deliberation, a jury returned guilty verdicts for both Cheryl and Edwin Criswell, left, on charges of aggravated cruelty to animals late Thursday. The Criswells were charged following their rescue and that of 116 cats living with them in two trailers snowbound west of Kalispell last December. In 2006, the Criswells entered 10 Alford pleas to animal cruelty charges after the U.S. Humane Society rescued 430 animals from their squalid trailer site in Blanchard, Idaho. Story here. (AP Photo/Daily Inter Lake, Brenda Ahearn)