A Massachusetts beekeeper who turned her hives on sheriff's deputies during an eviction has been sentenced to six months behind bars. A Springfield district court recently found 59-year-old Rebecca Woods guilty of four misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault after she released bees as officers tried to remove an elderly friend from his Longmeadow home in the fall of 2022, the New York Times reports. Several deputies and other staff members were stung, one badly enough to be hospitalized, and thousands of bees were said to have perished in the chaos.
Video released by the Hampden County Sheriff's Department shows Woods arriving in a blue SUV towing a trailer stacked with hives, then opening some of the boxes as deputies shout in alarm. Authorities testified that she was warned some officers were allergic, and that she replied, "Oh, you're allergic? Good." Her lawyer said that remark came while Woods was being pinned to the ground and argued she was motivated by her own history of evictions and a desire to shield her friend, a man almost 80 undergoing cancer treatment, from losing his home.
A jury cleared her of seven felony charges. Woods, who has already spent months in custody during extradition from Tennessee, is appealing her conviction. "This was unlike anything our team has ever experienced," said Sheriff Nick Cocchi, per WWLP. "Our deputies were carrying out a lawful court order and were met with a deliberate act that put lives in danger. We are grateful the jury recognized the seriousness of what occurred and the risk it posed to our staff and the community."
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