COUNCIL

Student sentenced for animal beating

By: AMANDA WOODRUFF

Posted: 8/28/08

A University student was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probabation for beating seven puppies to death last fall.

An Athens Clarke-County judge also sentenced Ashley Rose Council, a senior from Ellenwood, to 120 hours of community service and a $600 fine, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

"I don't have any comment," Council said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

District Attorney Ken Mauldinsaid Council pled guilty to seven misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and avoided a trial.

Her plea - an Alford plea - meant Council admitted there was "a substantial likelihood that (she) would be convicted if (she) went to trial," Mauldin said.

"It's the same as a plea of guilty. You're admitting guilt to the allegations set forth in the indictment."

But Mauldin said Council should have faced prison time.

"We felt there ought to have been confinement," Mauldin said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "Because of the facts of the case and especially because of the manner in which the puppies were left to die while in her care."

Seven puppies were found beaten to death in a box in a trash bin behind an Athens convenience store Sept. 8, 2007. Council was charged after the box, on which her home address was written, and a call to ACC Animal Control about seven puppies were linked back to her.

A grand jury concluded in October 2007 that there was enough evidence to charge Council with seven felony counts of animal cruelty, but prosecutors lessened the charges to misdemeanors.

Council withdrew from the University following her arrest, but she is now enrolled for fall semester, according to the Registrar's Office.