Winsted woman charged with animal cruelty fails to appear in court over safety concerns, lawyer says

Animal rights advocates from AMA Animal Rescue and Desmond's Army Animal Law Advocates gather outside state Superior court in Torrington, Thursday, April 24, 2025. The groups were there for Sarah Smolak, who was scheduled to be arraigned on animal cruelty charges, but her case was continued to May 8. – Jim Shannon/Hearst Connecticut Media

CT Insider | By Brigitte Ruthman,Staff Writer | April 24, 2025 |

TORRINGTON — A Winsted woman accused of dozens of counts of animal cruelty after police entered her home and seized malnourished and unhealthy dogs last month failed to appear at state Superior Court Thursday on her most recent charges because she feared for her safety, according to her lawyer.

0:17

Sarah Smolak’s Norwalk attorney, James Saraceni, told Judge Brian Preleski his client had received death threats as a result of publicity about the case, but indicated she “wasn’t far away.”

Preleski accepted Saraceni's representation without exposing Smolak to failure to appear charges, but told him Smolak would need to appear at her continuance date of May 8. 

About 15 members from two animal rights groups, including Desmond's Army and AMA Animal Rescue, were in the courtroom Thursday. Many were wearing T-shirts depicting a missing pitbull named Marshmallow said to have been in Smolak’s care last year but that hasn’t been seen since. An $8,000 reward has been jointly offered by the groups for his return or the arrest of anyone responsible for his disappearance. 

Smolak boarded and claimed to train dogs, charging a few hundred to thousands of dollars a month per animal, authorities have said.

Smolak, 28, has four warrants for animal cruelty now pending against her as a result of her alleged Winsted crimes, all of them related to 38 dogs believed to have been in her care. Of those, 21 are now under the supervision of the Harwinton Regional Animal Control shelter and are housed either at a Harwinton shelter or an overflow location.

Some have been returned to owners or fostering agencies that paid her to care for them, police say.

On March 18, police seized 27 dogs, several of which were malnourished and needed veterinary care. Another 11 dogs were said by police to have been mistreated previously in her care in Winsted.

The vet bill for the animals now totals $60,000, said AMA Animal Rescue spokesman Michele Walsh. An additional animal cruelty charge now is pending against her in Norwalk, where she lived before moving to Winsted in February.

She also is facing charges in Norwalk after being accused of having caused $100,000 in damages to the rental property where she lived, where feces and urine were said to have permeated the floors.

Smolak, 28, turned herself in to Winchester police earlier this month on two of the most recent of four arrest warrants, which in total document 38 alleged cases of cruelty. She is free on bail on the condition she not possess animals. Her boyfriend, David Reid, 28, also faces one count of animal cruelty and is free on the same stipulation.

Efforts to sever Smolak’s rights to any of the dogs seized from her home are being pursued by AMA Animal Rescue through its attorney, Jonathan Levitan. However, an additional attorney may need to be assigned if Saraceni wins an argument before the court that a single attorney cannot represent related criminal and civil matters. Levitan already is involved in a civil fight to sever any ownership claims Smolak has to any of the dogs.

Walsh said efforts also were underway to create a publicly disclosable registry of animal cruelty offenders, similar to the registry that exists for sexual assault offenders.

"We need to protect these animals," Walsh said.