CT INSIDER |by Daniel Tepfer | January 8.2025 | BRIDGEPORT — Her appeals exhausted, the former president of a Fairfield dog rescue, accused of the deaths of five dogs in her care, finally went to prison on Wednesday.
Dressed in a grey sweatsuit, Heidi Lueders stifled tears and quietly stated she was sorry as she was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Reid to the 15-month prison term imposed more than two years ago.
“Heidi managed to delay the inevitable for a couple of years, but justice for the poor creatures she tortured and for the devastating financial losses she imposed on her innocent landlord has finally arrived,” said State Animal Advocate G. Kenneth Bernhard.
While a judge in May 2022 found the 36-year-old Lueders not guilty of killing the five dogs – after a state veterinarian testified they were so decomposed he couldn’t tell how they died -the judge found Lueders guilty of first-degree criminal damage to property.
She subsequently appealed her conviction. The state Supreme Court recently refused to hear her appeal.
Last year the state Appellate Court upheld the conviction of Lueders denying her arguments that there had been insufficient evidence to convict her of the crime and that the trial erroneously took into account the allegations on the charges she was acquitted of in convicting her of the crime.
“There was overwhelming evidence that the deceased dogs had been in the defendant’s care, that they had perished two to ten months prior to being discovered in the home from which she ran a dog rescue, and much of the damage to the home, which the defendant was convicted of causing, resulted from the toxins that emanated from the dog’s carcasses when they were left to rot,” the appeals court stated.
“Furthermore, the court expressly considered the defendant’s actions after the verdict, which included bragging on social media about how she had been found innocent, which the court referenced during sentencing by emphasizing that the defendant had not been found innocent, but was, instead, found not guilty.”
Lueders, the former president of Bully Breed dog rescue, was accused of leaving five dogs to die in the Prince Street, Fairfield, home she rented in November 2018 from Celly Roberts. The remains of the dogs — skin and bones — were found in locked cages throughout the house.
But in February 2022, following a trial before the judge, Peter McShane found Lueders not guilty of the animal counts and only guilty of the criminal damage charge after a medical expert testified that because of their deteriorated condition he couldn’t say how the dogs died.
“You may be listening to this and think ‘does this judge honestly believe or think these dogs died of natural causes,’” the judge said after announcing his verdict to the more than a dozen animal rights activists sobbing in the back of the courtroom. “It doesn’t matter what I think, what matters is what the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
During Lueders’ sentencing hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Felicia Valentino argued that Lueders destroyed Roberts’ house when she left the five dogs there. She said because of the damage the house went into foreclosure and was sold at auction.
Valentino said Roberts was seeking more than $190,000 in restitution.
“She (Lueders) needs to be punished for her actions,” the prosecutor said at the time.
Lueders at her sentencing tearfully blamed her heroin addiction for her actions.
“Heroin took over my entire life,” she told McShane. “People have asked me what happened and I can’t remember because I was on heroin. I’m sorry for everything that happened and I accept responsibility.”
But McShane said he was also taking into consideration what Lueders did after he found her not guilty of the animal cruelty charges, going on social media and bragging about her acquittal.
There was no acceptance of responsibility, he added.
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