Duo convicted of animal cruelty after pleading guilty

Two New Jersey women avoid prison time and instead spend nearly a year in prison for staggering animal cruelty charges.

In June, Michele Nycz, 60, and Aimee Lonczak, 51, each pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty, according to a news release from the Ocean County District Attorney's Office. At the same time, Lonczak also pleaded guilty to one count of child neglect.

But that deal in early summer settled a case involving a number of animals kept in unhealthy, inappropriate and otherwise deplorable conditions. When the sad state of affairs was first reported to authorities by several neighbors, Lonczak's then 16-year-old daughter was living in the same filthy apartment.