Police said they found 125 rabbits living in a Hillsboro woman�s home on Oct 16, and nearly 90 dead rabbits in her garage. Hillsboro Police said they found the dead rabbits in freezers and refrigerators.
"It's really a sad case of hoarding," said Hillsboro Commander Chris Skinner, "We suspect we have some mental health issues attached to this."
Hillsboro Police plan to charge Miriam Sakewitz with animal cruelty and neglect as soon as Tuesday. She says she was caring for the rabbits.
"I have a phonebook thick stack of vet bills to show I take care of those rabbits," Sakewitz told kgw.com. She said she didn't know how many rabbits, living or dead, she had in her house.
"I don't count the dead animals because they don't need to be taken care of," Sakewitz said.
She claimed to be storing the dead rabbits in freezers until she could properly bury them.
Police and officials from Washington County's Animal Control office were inside the house processing the scene, Skinner described, as a "barnyard."
"There's fecal matter in areas," Skinner said. "There are rabbits in cages inside the house that are suffering from stress-related, over-crowding issues and other types of diseases and illnesses."
Sakewitz was not arrested, but police said she could face several animal neglect and cruelty charges Case UpdatesOregon's largest animal neglect case did not end today as planned when a judge ordered Miriam Sakewitz to pay nearly $20,000 in restitution for the care of more than 150 rabbits seized from her home nearly nine months ago.
During the restitution hearing, Sakewitz, 45, was arraigned on charges that she violated her probation for having rabbits once again on her property in the 1800 block of Northeast 23rd Court in Hillsboro.
A probation violation hearing will be held Aug. 9.
Sakewitz pleaded no contest in April to five counts each of first- and second-degree animal neglect and was sentenced to five years' probation. Because of the convictions, state law mandated that she not possess domestic animals for five years.
Police seized 158 live rabbits from her house, backyard and shed during a raid Oct. 16. They found another 88 dead rabbits in refrigerators and freezers.
Police said the surviving rabbits were diseased, sick and dirty. They were adopted out after being nursed back to health, fed and cared for by Rock Creek Veterinary Hospital, Washington County Animal Services, Hillsboro police and volunteer rabbit advocates.
While the rabbits were in a secret police warehouse, Sakewitz broke in and took more than 100 of them in January, police said. She was arrested in Chehalis, Wash., with nine live rabbits and one dead rabbit in her car. More than 130 rabbits were at a nearby horse farm.
In that case, Sakewitz pleaded no contest to second-degree criminal mischief and tampering with evidence. | Source: Oregon Live - July 12, 2007
Update posted on Jul 12, 2007 - 4:13PM |
Now that the case is over and Sakewitz has been ordered to forfeit her animals and not own any more for five years, police are putting the remaining 141 rabbits up for adoption. The Oregon Humane Society will coordinate the adoptions, making sure the rabbits go to good homes and not wholesalers or pet shops. Lt. Michael Rouches, who has coordinated the case for the Hillsboro Police Department, said people who want to adopt a rabbit can contact the humane society by phone at 503-285-7722 or online at www.oregonhumane.org.
A public adoption will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at a police warehouse in the 600 block of Northeast 48th Avenue in Hillsboro. Balloons and signs will direct people to the site. The humane society will require identification and will question adopters on why they want a rabbit, Rouches said. A donation of $10 for the humane society is suggested. | Source: The Oregonian - April 18, 2007
Update posted on Apr 18, 2007 - 11:50PM |
Neighbors of the Hillsboro woman who was charged with animal neglect for hoarding hundreds of rabbits say they think she may be hoarding animals again.
Miriam Sakewitz pleaded no contest to animal neglect charges stemming from the discovery of hundreds of dead and dying rabbits on her property in October. After the animals were taken away, Sakewitz found out where the live rabbits were and stole them back from a holding facility.
This week, a judge gave her two five-year terms of probation.
But her neighbors say they are seeing signs that Sakewitz may again be collecting animals, despite a court order for her to have no animals in her custody during her five year probation period.
Neighbors say Sakewitz has changed the locks on her shed and keeps window coverings closed most all of the time. On her porch, K-A-T-U discovered a blanket covered in rabbit feces.
Hillsboro police say Sakewitz is under constant surveillance. | Source: King 5 - April 14, 2007
Update posted on Apr 15, 2007 - 4:58PM |
A Hillsboro woman who was accused of neglecting more than 200 pet rabbits and then stealing most of them back can stay out of jail if she agrees to plead guilty in the next two weeks, prosecutors said Monday.
But whether she pleads guilty or is convicted at a trial set for April 17, Miriam Sakewitz won't be raising rabbits anytime soon.
"It's devastating," Sakewitz, 44, said of not having her pets after Monday's pretrial conference in Washington County Circuit Court.
The only chance Sakewitz has of getting back the rabbits the police haven't given away is to turn down the plea deal, go to trial and be found not guilty. If she is convicted of any of the 30 charges of first- and second-degree animal neglect she faces, Oregon law automatically prohibits Sakewitz from owning a domestic animal for five years.
If Sakewitz is convicted, prosecutor Matthew Hall said Monday that he would press for a jail sentence. If she pleads guilty, Hall told defense attorney Adam Dean, he would recommend Sakewitz serve probation.
"I had my rabbits for 10 years," Sakewitz said Monday. "I was in the process of moving them to a farm. Some were already there."
Acting on a tip, Hillsboro police in October seized 158 live rabbits and 88 dead ones from Sakewitz's house in the 1800 block of Northeast 23rd Court. Hillsboro residents can legally keep four rabbits within city limits.
"They had gotten vet care just two days before that," Sakewitz said.
Police call Sakewitz, who lived alone with her rabbits, Oregon's biggest animal hoarder in terms of numbers. Animal hoarders, mostly older women, compulsively collect pets and think they are giving them love but can't properly care for the overwhelming numbers.
Police say she was so desperate to get her rabbits back that in January she broke into a secure, undisclosed facility where police and volunteers had been caring for them. Investigators found 10 rabbits, including two dead ones, in Sakewitz's car in Chehalis, Wash., a week later. More than 130 were recovered from a nearby horse farm.
For allegedly taking the rabbits, Sakewitz is charged with violating her release agreement, three counts of second-degree burglary and one count each of tampering with physical evidence, second-degree criminal mischief and second-degree theft.
Police gave away 70 rabbits to volunteers who were helping care for them, but the Oregon Supreme Court issued an injunction against the adoptions. The court decided not to hear Sakewitz's argument that her rabbits could not be seized unless she was found guilty, but authorities decided to keep the rest of the animals in storage until her case is closed. | Source: The Oregonian - March 13, 2007
Update posted on Mar 14, 2007 - 1:21AM |
Police are caring for 139 rabbits -- at a secure location -- that were seized when Miriam Elaine Sakewitz was cited for animal neglect in October. Officer Don Pierce, who is assigned to the department's code enforcement unit, spent his day feeding and watering the rabbits, cleaning their cages and giving them medications.
For a few hours Wednesday, after the Oregon Supreme Court turned back Sakewitz's motion challenging the order that she forfeit her rabbits, police were busy finding homes for the animals. But then the city's attorney and a Washington County prosecutor decided the city should keep the rabbits until the case is completed.
Giving the rabbits away "didn't seem like the right thing to do right at this second," said Matthew Hall, deputy district attorney.
Seventy rabbits were given away in January during a break in the legal wrangling.
Sakewitz's defense attorney, Adam L. Dean, did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday, and he refused to comment to reporters at a court appearance last month.
Sakewitz has a pre-trial conference Monday on the charges that she broke into a police facility in January and stole most of the rabbits. Ten rabbits, including two dead ones, were found in Sakewitz's car in Chehalis, Wash., a week later. Police recovered 132 on a nearby horse farm.
Her trial, on dozens of the original neglect charges, is April 17.
Police officials say it costs $2 a day to keep each rabbit healthy and in individual cages, or more than $8,000 a month. That amount includes Pierce's salary and time spent by volunteers.
"It's hard to justify to the citizens of Hillsboro that we are spending resources on rabbits," Hillsboro police Lt. Michael Rouches said.
"The court says we can't seize somebody's property until they are convicted," he said. "OK, but animals are different than a computer or a car that we can stick in our storage unit."
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear the case because it hadn't first gone to the Court of Appeals.
The saga began Oct. 16, when Hillsboro police, acting on complaints from neighbors, seized 157 rabbits from Sakewitz's house in the 1800 block of Northeast 23rd Court. They said they also found 88 dead rabbits.
A Washington County judge ordered Dec. 22 that Sakewitz forfeit her rabbits. She fought the forfeiture, and on Jan. 11, another judge ordered Sakewitz to post an $85,000 bond to pay for the rabbits' care by Jan. 17 or give them up.
Three days before the deadline, the rabbits were stolen.
After recovering the animals, police gave away about 70 rabbits and planned a public adoption. However, the Supreme Court issued an injunction Feb. 1.
Pierce said the adopted animals went to rabbit advocates who were helping care for them in Hillsboro.
"You don't save rabbits from neglect and nurse them back to health and then hand them to some herpetologist for food," Pierce said. "These are domesticated pets. That would be like handing off a dog or cat to be eaten." | Source: Oregon Live - March 9, 2007
Update posted on Mar 11, 2007 - 6:50PM |
Amid a flurry of questions from media members, the woman first accused of neglecting, then stealing, more than a hundred rabbits strolled into her first court hearing on Feb 8, flanked by her attorneys.
Miriam Elaine Sakewitz, 44, had no comment for the horde, but seemed at ease prior to her arraignment before Judge Rick Knapp.
Clad in a black ensemble of form-fitting dress pants and cropped leather jacket, she laughed with attorneys Adam Dean and Barry Engel while waiting outside the courtroom at the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
Sakewitz stands charged of multiple counts of animal neglect after Hillsboro police and animal control officers seized 150 rabbits from her former residence on Northeast 23rd Avenue in October 2006. Another 88 dead rabbits were found stored in freezers.
At the hearing, Sakewitz pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree burglary, criminal mischief, second-degree theft and tampering with evidence for her alleged role in breaking into a secure police facility and stealing most of the rabbits back.
Police say she cut through a fence, pried open a locked door, and made off with about 140 of the 200 rabbits housed in the temporary hutch.
Sakewitz was briefly jailed in Lewis County, Wash., after local police picked her up on theft charges Jan. 22. Police found nine rabbits in her car, and located about 130 more at a nearby livestock boarding ranch.
A day later, Sakewitz posted bail and was released. Days later, she turned herself in to authorities in Washington County on a warrant for violating her original release terms.
Her attorneys filed an emergency motion with the Oregon Supreme Court Feb. 1 to stop an adoption event for the rabbits planned for Feb. 3. The motion claims forfeiture of property without convicting the owner of a crime is unconstitutional. Further, the motion implies that an $85,000 bond imposed by Judge Rita Batz-Cobb for Sakewitz to keep the bunnies was excessive.
In her response to the motion dated Feb. 8, Assistant County Counsel Jacquilyn Saito-Moore wrote that Sakewitz was attempting to circumvent the authority of the Court of Appeals, where her motion for review should have been filed. Secondly, she says Sakewitz should have served a petition to Batz-Cobb first.
She pointed out that the bond was originally $122,000, and the judge had settled on the lower figure.
"The bond amount set by Judge Cobb is not arbitrarily ordered, but is in relation to the cost of caring for over 200 animals," Saito-Moore wrote.
The Hillsboro police and volunteers with the Oregon Humane Society have been ordered to continue care of the rabbits until the Oregon Supreme Court makes a decision, which could take several weeks.
Assuming the Hillsboro police estimate of $400 a day for the rabbits' care, the cost of housing the rabbits since the Oct. 16 raid stands today at $48,000.
Knapp set a trial date on all of the charges for April 17, but also scheduled a hearing for March 12 on all of the charges, should attorneys for both sides be able to come to an agreement. | Source: Hillsboro Argus - Feb 13, 2007
Update posted on Feb 15, 2007 - 2:13AM |
By tapping a law usually applied to property seized from drug dealers, Miriam Sakewitz will keep Hillsboro police in the bunny business for at least a few more weeks.
An attorney for Sakewitz, a Hillsboro woman charged with neglecting dozens of rabbits, argues that authorities have no right to sell her animals because she hasn't been convicted of a crime.
In a petition filed this week with the Oregon Supreme Court, Adam Dean cited a constitutional amendment approved by Oregon voters in 2000. Dean argues the law often used in drug cases also applies to Sakewitz's situation.
The state's highest court is expected to respond in a few weeks.
The legal move canceled today's planned adoption of more than 150 of the rabbits in an event called the Super Bowl Saturday Bunny Blitz. Instead, the Hillsboro Police Department, along with volunteers, will continue to care for Sakewitz's rabbits and their quickly increasing progeny.
"We're all so fed up with this case," said Hillsboro police Cmdr. Chris Skinner. "We're all very, very hopeful that it will be over soon."
In October, police seized 158 live rabbits from Sakewitz's home and found nearly 100 dead rabbits in freezers and other storage containers. She was charged with more than 250 counts of first- and second-degree animal neglect.
Sakewitz was ordered to post an $85,000 bond by Jan. 17 or the rabbits would become available for adoption. In the days leading up to that date, Sakewitz repeatedly asked Hillsboro police if they would return 75 of her favorite animals. Police denied her requests.
On Jan. 14, police said, someone cut a chain-link fence, pried open a steel door and took about 130 of the more than 200 rabbits kept at a Hillsboro building. After a weeklong investigation, police arrested Sakewitz in Chehalis, Wash. In her car, police said, they found nine live rabbits and one dead rabbit. The other missing rabbits were recovered at a nearby horse farm.
Sakewitz is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 12 on multiple charges in connection with that break-in. A grand jury this week indicted her on three counts of second-degree burglary, one count of second-degree theft, one count of criminal mischief and one count of tampering with evidence.
She is expected to go on trial Feb. 14 on the misdemeanor animal neglect charges. Those have been reduced to 30 counts for the sake of efficiency, but it still is "the largest charging document I've ever printed out," said Matthew Hall, deputy district attorney, who is prosecuting the case.
Meanwhile, Hillsboro police say it is difficult to estimate how many rabbits are in their care. The stolen rabbits were mingled and some are visibly pregnant.
"There's no way to estimate what we might be looking at," Skinner said. "I just don't know." | Source: The Oregonian - Feb 3, 2007
Update posted on Feb 3, 2007 - 6:12PM |
The Hillsboro Police Department and the Oregon Humane Society are teaming up to find homes for the 150 neglected rabbits that were seized from a hideout last week.
In spirit of the upcoming game day celebration, the public is invited to partake in the Super Bowl Bunny Blitz. The goal is to find home for all 150 rabbits all in one day, a record they say, of Super Bowl proportions.
The rabbits are part of one of the largest and strangest animal neglect cases in Oregon history. They were rescued from neglect last October, then stolen from custody in January, then recovered from a Hillsboro home last Tuesday.
A judge awarded custody of the rabbits to the Hillsboro Police Department, who would like to see the saga of these rabbits end happily by placing them in good homes.
"We are delighted to assist the Hillsboro Police Department with this adoption effort," said Sharon Harmon, of the Oregon Humane Society. "We're looking for quiet homes where families can make a long-term commitment to these rescued rabbits."
People interested in taking a rabbit home can find more information about these great pets at www.adoptarabbit.com. There is a suggested adoption donation of $15, which benefits Rabbit Advocates, an Oregon nonprofit group.
The rabbits will be up for adoption Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hillsboro Police Department West Precinct. | Source: KOIN - Jan 30, 2007
Update posted on Jan 31, 2007 - 3:20PM |
A Hillsboro woman charged with more than 250 counts of animal abuse for allegedly hoarding rabbits has until Wednesday to post an $85,000 bond to provide for the bunnies' continuing care while they are evidence in the criminal case against her.
If she doesn't, the Hillsboro Police Department and the Oregon Humane Society will make the animals available for adoption after a court-ordered 72-hour waiting period, said HPD Lt. Mike Rouches.
On Oct. 16, 2006, Hillsboro police seized 169 live rabbits and 88 dead rabbits stored in freezers from Miriam Sakewitz' former residence on Northeast 23rd Avenue.
Sakewitz, 44, was cited for 92 counts of animal neglect in the first degree, and 165 counts of animal neglect in the second degree.
Including the bunnies found in the freezers, four were put down because of poor health.
About 40 baby bunnies have been born in the four months since. The rabbits are being cared for by volunteers with the Humane Society at an undisclosed Hillsboro location, Rouches said. All the remaining rabbits are thriving, Rouches said.
But their care is expensive, he added. The police department is spending $400 a day for food and bedding.
"This is a huge undertaking," Rouches said. "She has to post this bond so we can draw from it while this case is pending." And the adoption won't be easy either, he said. According to the Oregon Humane Society, this would be one of the largest mass adoptions in the agency's history.
According to Oregon law, both first- and second-degree animal neglect involve failure to provide minimum care for an animal, either through intent, knowledge, reckless behavior or criminal negligence. First-degree animal neglect is warranted if the result is serious injury or death of the animal.
A Hillsboro city ordinance forbids owning more than four bunnies inside city limits.
Police first visited Sakewitz' home in July 2006, responding to her reports of some dead juvenile rabbits.
Investigators were unable to determine what had caused the death of the young rabbits, but officers could plainly see she had more rabbits than was legal. Some of the rabbits were in cages and some were roaming free, both inside and outside the house.
When police received information Sakewitz faced similar complaints for hoarding rabbits in a Milwaukie home in 2005, they sought a search warrant. | Source: Hillsboro Argus - Jan 16, 2007
Update posted on Jan 23, 2007 - 10:21PM |
Police have issued more than 250 citations for animal neglect stemming from the October raid of a Hillsboro house.
In October, officers found 150 rabbits at Miriam Sakewitz's home, many sick, injured or malnourished. Nearly 100 dead rabbits were found in the freezer. At the time, animal control officers called it one of the worst cases of animal hoarding they'd seen.
Sakewitz, 44, remains free on her own recognizance. The Washington County District Attorney's Office is considering the case.
The rabbits are in police custody and are reportedly thriving. | Source: KOIN - Nov 15, 2006
Update posted on Nov 15, 2006 - 5:03PM |
As investigators prepare their case against a Hillsboro woman accused of hoarding hundreds of rabbits, veterinarians are caring for the sickest of the animals seized from the woman's home Monday.
The veterinarian treating the sick rabbits said Tuesday that some may have to be euthanized.
Police and animal control officers claim they found 158 living rabbits and 88 deceased rabbits inside Miriam Sakewitz's home. She's accused of storing the dead rabbits in freezers and refrigerators in her garage.
Eight of the living rabbits were in critical condition under a veterinarian's observation. The rest are being cared for by Hillsboro Police Officers who live on Washington County farms. Veterinarians say most of the living rabbits were malnourished.
Sakewitz told kgw.com she was storing the dead rabbits until she could properly bury them. She said the living rabbits were healthy. "I have a phonebook-thick stack of vet bills to show I was taking them to a specialist in Seattle once a month," she said.
Sakewitz has not been arrested or officially charged yet. Investigators are still determining how many animal cruelty or neglect charges she will face.
"We could conceivably charge her with one crime for every rabbit we found," said Hillsboro Police Commander Chris Skinner, "But we don't know if that's practical." Washington County's District Attorney will likely decide the number of charges once Hillsboro detectives finish their investigation.
Investigators hope to allow the healthy rabbits to be adopted to the public once the investigation is complete. While the rabbits are not up for adoption yet, police said anyone interested in adopting one of the rabbits should contact the Oregon Humane Society.
"Right now," said Skinner, "They're still considered evidence in an active investigation." | Source: KGW - Oct 17, 2006
Update posted on Oct 23, 2006 - 10:41AM |
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