ALEDO, Ill. — A trial against a Mercer County woman accused of hoarding more than 200 dogs began Tuesday, Feb. 27, with police bodycam footage showing the courtroom the conditions of the home.
Karen Plambeck, 60, of Sherrard, was arrested in 2022 and is facing 12 charges of aggravated cruelty to animals. If convicted, she faces between one and three years in prison.
On Tuesday, Mercer County Sheriff's Detective Anthony Baugh testified and described the scene he saw at Plambeck's home, which he described as "just filthy conditions."
The court was shown bodycam video from Baugh's perspective.
"This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen," Baugh was heard saying over the bodycam. "I don't even see any food or water, do you?"
As shown on the screen in the courtroom, many dogs were locked in cages.
Baugh described finding water buckets filled with bugs and being worried for the dogs' well-being.
"The dogs in the barn though, they were in small cages. The feces was on the floor of the kennels just mounted up," Baugh said in court.
Some of the dogs were transported to a veterinarian.
Plambeck pleaded not guilty to all 12 counts of aggravated cruelty. She was granted a bench trial, meaning there is no jury and the verdict will come from Judge Matthew Durbin.
The bench trial is set to run through Friday, March 1.