BOSTON -- A woman accused of cruelty to cats has been ordered to stay away from her Beacon Hill apartment.
NewsCenter 5's Kelley Tuthill reported that Heidi Erickson acted as her own attorney in an unusual day-long court session in which inspectors testified that they found the remains of as many as 60 dead cats stored in her apartment.
Erickson repeatedly demanded that Judge Manuel Kyriakakas declare a mistrial during the hearing, saying she was never served to appear. But the judge pointed out that since she was at the courthouse, she was served.
The hearing went on for nearly five hours, as inspectors described their search of Erickson's Charles Street apartment.
"We opened the refrigerator door and checked the freezer, and that's when we found approximately 60 dead cat carcasses throughout the fridge and freezer," inspector Edward Kennedy said.
Erickson said the investigation was a fraud and insisted that her rights were being violated under the U.S. and state constitutions. Near the end of the hearing, Erickson repeatedly said she had more questions, but Kyriakakas seemed to lose patience and told her she had already made her points clear.
Erickson was ordered to stay away from the apartment until further order of the court.
"I think that I understand that a court allows a person to have a say in ... their own defense, and I was restricted from that," Erickson said.
Kyriakakas also ordered that Erickson not rent any more property in the city of Boston for the use of keeping or storing animals.
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