Women In Brick Hoarding Case To Remain Free Until Trial, Judge Rules

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Two women charged with animal cruelty after 180 dogs and cats were removed from a Brick Township home in December will remain free until trial, after a judge denied a motion to revoke their pretrial release.

Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan denied the motion by the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office in connection with a Jan. 19 incident at the Southern Ocean County Animal Shelter, where Aimee J. Lonczak, 50, and Michele Nycz, 58, went to try to retrieve seven dogs they say are their personal pets.

The two were accused of violating the pretrial release order by Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels on Dec. 8, barring them from contact with animals after the dogs and cats were found in feces-encrusted cages stacked on top of each other in Nycz's Brick Township home on Dec. 2.

That order also barred both women, who are charged with child endangerment, from contact with Lonczak's 16-year-old daughter, who was living with them in conditions so bad Brick Township code enforcement condemned the home. Lonczak's order was later amended, but Nycz continues to be banned from contact with the teen, court officials said.

On Tuesday, Assistant Prosecutor Alexander Becker withdrew a charge against Nycz that said she violated the no-contact order regarding Lonczak's daughter. A teen accompanied the two women to the Southern Ocean shelter in Stafford, but Becker said that teen was not the 16-year-old covered under the no-contact order.

Lonczak's older daughter had accompanied the two women, Glenn Kassman, Lonczak's public defender, said later during the proceedings.

The hearing over issue of the violation of no-contact with animals was contentious. Kassman accused the prosecutor's office of dragging its feet following a Jan. 10 order by Superior Court Judge Linda Baxter to set aside seven dogs that Lonczak and Nycz now say they did not willingly surrender to the state.

Part of Baxter's order was that Lonczak and Nycz had to pay for the food, shelter and vet care for the animals in question. Kassman said they asked about arranging for the animals to be fostered during the hearing before Baxter, and said Lonczak's cousin had agreed to foster the dogs until the issue was resolved.

But Kassman said the prosecutor's office was slow to respond to requests for information about where the dogs were being kept and that the prosecutor's office failed to convey information to the shelters about the court order.

"They have acted in bad faith," Kassman said. The fostering, he said, was arranged later in the day on Jan. 10, and it was two days before Becker told him where the dogs were. Efforts to retrieve the dogs were met with roadblocks and on Jan. 17, Lonczak asked him about going to the shelter. "I said, 'Go ahead, why not,' " advice admitted Tuesday was "ill-advised."

Becker said the question of the dogs being fostered included a caveat that it comply with the shelter's rules on fostering; the shelter, he said, requires fosters to be members of its volunteer organization.

Becker said on Jan. 19, when Lonczak and Nycz went to the shelter, Lonczak allegedly tried to bully the shelter manager, Trish McCallum, into turning over the dogs, going so far as to claim she had a court order that the dogs were to be returned to her.

Kassman called Becker's assertions lies, saying surveillance video shows nothing resembling bullying. He also criticized a report by Brick Township Police Officer Scott Smith, the township's humane law enforcement officer, saying it was biased against the two women.

"Everybody here hates my client and Ms. Nycz because of what they are alleged to have done," Kassman said, adding that attitude has led to people looking for opportunities to see them sent to jail.

Becker did not call any witnesses during the hearing, which Ryan cited in rendering his ruling.

Ryan raised three issues he had with the revocation motion. First, that neither Smith nor the prosecutor's office interviewed McCallum. Smith's report cited information from the assistant shelter manager, Jacqueline Strawder, who Ryan said did not appear to have witnessed the incident.

"Why was there no statement from McCallum?" he said. "Why weren't Stafford Township police called" since there was a belief the women had violated the court order.

"I have a series of hearsay information on what happened," Ryan said.

Compounding that, Ryan said, was that Baxter's order had ambiguous language about the assistance Lonczak and Nycz were to give to help identify the dogs that were theirs. Becker said the prosecutor's office had received photos and the dogs in question have been located, with the exception of one that apparently was adopted out prior to the Jan. 10 hearing.

But Ryan also said Lonczak and Nycz had to know that going to a shelter was a violation of the no-contact order, "because of course you're going to be in contact with animals there," he said.

He added language to the order specifying that the two women are not to go to any shelter or any pet store (some of the animals from the hoarding case have been offered for adoption at PetSmart adoption days) until the charges against them are resolved.

The next hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 21, where Baxter is scheduled to hear testimony on whether the women voluntarily surrendered the animals or not.

Lonczak and Nycz signed over their legal claims to the animals after the Dec. 8 hearing, but have since said they did not do so willingly with regard to their pets.

There were 129 dogs and 44 cats removed from the house, and six dogs and one cat removed from a vehicle parked in the driveway. The house, which had feces and urine 3 and 4 inches deep throughout and had fumes so strong that people had to put on hazmat suits to enter and retrieve the animals, was condemned by Brick Township code enforcement.

The child endangerment charge resulted because Lonczak and Nycz had the 16-year-old living with them in those uninhabitable conditions.

Full coverage:

• Brick Animal Hoarding Case: Questions And Answers
• 180 Dogs, Cats Removed From Brick Home, 2 Arrested: Police
• Dogs, Cats From Brick 'Puppy Mill' Under Ocean County's Care
• How Rescue Founder Hid Brick Animal Hoarding: Fosters, Adopters Speak
• 'Desperate Need': Manahawkin Animal Shelter Asks For Coats, Cash
• 'Nightmare': Popcorn Park Officer Shares Hoarder House Experience
• Hundreds Of Pets In Need Following Brick Hoarder Rescue: How To Help
• Women Released To Await Trial In Brick Animal Hoarding Case
• Animals From Brick Hoarding Turned Over To Ocean County
• Missing-Pet Pleas Pour In To Police In Brick Hoarding Case
• Collie Taken By Brick Hoarders Reunited With Family
• Bloodhound Found In Brick Hoarding Case Reunited With Tennessee Family
• Women In Brick Hoarding Case Want 7 'Personal' Dogs Returned: Reports
• Brick Hoarding Case: Prosecutor Says Women Demanded Dogs From Shelter

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