Two Alabama seniors, convicted after feeding stray cats, file appeal and prepare to sue their city

After two Alabama women were arrested, fined and sentenced to jail as well as probation in connection to feeding stray cats in their neighborhood near Montgomery, their attorneys filed a formal appeal seeking a jury trial and are preparing to sue the city.

Beverly Roberts, 85, and her friend, Mary Alston, 60, were arrested in Wetumpka in June and hauled off to jail when police spotted them sitting inside their cars and suspected they were feeding stray cats. Roberts, a retired sergeant major in the U.S. Army, was originally told by authorities last summer to stop feeding cats on public property. The county said at the time that the cats were a nuisance and causing damage to county vehicles.

The police officer who pulled Roberts from her car during her more recent arrest told the grandmother she was being taken into custody "because you have been trespassed, and you have returned yet again."