Alabama cat ladies say they're living nightmare over love of animals

WETUMPKA — The police officer yanked Mary Alston, 60, out of her car. In the midst of a heat wave in June, he put her in the back of a police car with just one window cracked open.

This is where her nightmares start. Alston said she relives the scene as she sleeps. It's been that way since June 25, when Wetumpka police arrested Alston and her friend, Beverly Roberts, 85, after police told them they were trespassing on public property to feed cats.

The women objected, argued that feeding cats wasn't illegal. Body cam footage from the arrest made its way from the Montgomery Advertiser's news site to regional, national and even international news sites and programs.

Officers left Alston in the back of the car for 30 minutes to an hour while they searched the women's cars, said attorney Terry Luck, who represents the two.

“I thought I was going to die," Alston said.

She screamed as loud as could, saying she could not breathe, but the officers did not heed her cries.

'The law should've been on our side'

On Dec. 13, Wetumpka Judge Jeff Courtney found Roberts guilty of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct and Alston guilty of criminal trespassing and interfering with governmental operations.

Courtney sentenced Roberts and Alston each to two years of unsupervised probation and 10 days in jail. The jail sentence was suspended. They were ordered to each pay $100 in fines, plus court costs.

“Let’s make it clear that feeding cats is not illegal," Alston said.

Roberts was not surprised that the judge found them guilty because of the "small-town politics" that she said were at play. The mayor, she said, gave the official order to arrest Roberts and Alston. Luck said a police officer testified to this during the trial.

Luck said he requested that Courtney recuse himself from the case, as Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis serves as his employer. Courtney refused to do so.

The women are waiting to hear what will become of the appeal that Luck filed for them on Monday.

“All the evidence we had and all the body cam footage, the law should’ve been on our side," Alston said.