Lacey L. Williams

BAY CITY, MI -- Prosecutors have extended a plea offer to a Bay City woman accused of drunkenly hurling kittens into a street.

The offer made Friday, Sept. 2, calls for 34-year-old Lacey L. Williams to plead guilty or no contest to abandonment or cruelty to four to 10 animals. The charge is punishable by up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine, though Williams' extensive criminal record increases the maximum potential penalty to 15 years.

The offer further states that if Williams accepts the offer, she'll be treated a fourth-time habitual offender.

In exchange, the prosecution will dismiss a 90-day misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in public and won't pursue additional charges, court records show.

Williams is to appear for a hearing to accept or reject the offer at 9:15 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 16.

According to police reports contained in court files, police at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, responded to 211 N. Madison Ave. for a call of Williams trying to kill kittens by throwing them in the street. The person who called 911 also said Williams had smashed out the windows of two vehicles, court records show.

Officers saw Williams pacing around in her front yard, yelling and screaming at a man across the street. Williams appeared highly intoxicated and agitated and was ranting in a way that made her difficult to understand, police wrote in their reports.

"I threw some little kittens out," Williams told police, according to court records. "I gave them their litter. I can't afford them. Do you want to pay for them?"

Williams went on to say she can do what she wants at her own home.

A Pontiac Montana van parked in her driveway had its rear window smashed out, court records show. Williams said she didn't know who owned the van.

As police spoke with Williams, a witness pointed out a cardboard box across the street. An officer approached the box and found it contained four kittens whose eyes hadn't opened yet. Nearby children then directed the officer to the kittens' mother, court records show.

"I took the cardboard box of kittens back across the street and put it near the mother cat," the officer wrote in his report. "I eventually pulled the mother cat out of the bushes and placed it in the box with the kittens."

Police arrested Williams at the scene.

The Times twice have submitted a Freedom of Information Act to the Bay City Department of Public Safety seeking officers' body camera footage, specifically officers' interactions with Williams and their recovery of the felines. Both requests were denied, citing the ongoing investigation.

The calico mother cat and her kittens were taken to Bay Animal Hospital, 637 W. Center Road in Hampton Township. Staff there determined the cats were uninjured in the incident, according to Bay County Prosecutor Kurt C. Asbury.

A fifth kitten was recovered by a person in the neighborhood and later surrendered to Bay County Animal Control.

The kittens and their mother are fostered by a rescue group.

After her arraignment, Williams was free on a $20,000 cash-surety bond, as posted by a bonding agency. As a condition of her bond, she was not to have any animals in her care and was to submit to regular personal Breathalyzer tests.

Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Aug. 24 issued a bench warrant for Williams after she missed several of the tests. The warrant was recalled Friday morning and Williams remains free on bond.