A Halethorpe woman charged with 328 counts of animal abuse wants to amend her sentence so she can sell some of the 80 animals seized and possibly reclaim some as pets.

After Kimberly Klein, 53, took an Alford plea Sept. 10 in what both prosecutors and defense attorneys describe as a “hoarding situation,” Baltimore County Circuit Judge Wendy Epstein sentenced her to a year of probation during which she could not own any animals except four the court allowed. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain their innocence, while acknowledging the evidence would likely result in conviction.

At a Feb. 3 hearing, the judge ordered her to “make a good-faith effort to re-home the animals.”

Now, both her attorney and the prosecutor acknowledge, Klein wants to amend her sentence at a Feb. 27 hearing.

“We will be back here asking that it be removed and probation before judgment entered,” her attorney, Larry Greenberg, said of the sentence and probation limits, at her sentencing hearing.

Under probation before judgment, a defendant’s conviction is vacated upon completion of their probation.

If the judge agrees, Klein may no longer be banned from owning animals.

“I will consider probation before judgement if she is in compliance,” Epstein said at the hearing.

Of the 328 charges, 80 were felony counts for “intentional torture” of 27 birds, 16 dogs, 11 geckos, eight fish, six tortoises, three cats, two pigs and one each of the following: iguana, bearded dragon, snake, ferret, hamster and rabbit. There were so many the county shelter couldn’t accommodate them, so many were sent to foster families.

Animal rights advocates say nothing about this case is normal — not the quantity, not how it was handled, not the way the families were ordered recently to return the animals they were fostering, and not the defendant’s role in finding new homes for them.

In 2023, the county seized 207 animals in 91 cruelty and neglect cases, according a county Animal Service Review. None were returned to owners by the courts; in no cases were the accused abuser allowed to sell or re-home the animals.

“Would you ever do this in a child abuse case?” asked Lisa Radov, executive director of Maryland Votes for Animals, which helps pass laws to protect pets, livestock and wildlife.

Assistant States’ Attorney Alex Walsh told the judge that he kept the probation recommendation “intentionally vague.”

“I have agreed that Miss Klein, through counsel and through county attorneys, can make efforts to dispose or sell those other animals in an effort to recoup a rather significant financial exposure that she holds in those animals,” Walsh said.

Attorney and animal rights advocate Jennifer Stackowitz said she was shocked listening to the hearing.

“Wait a minute — is that the prosecutor advocating for the defendant?" she asked.

Klein has been connecting with associates to find homes for the animals, Greenberg said. She has a Feb. 26 hearing in District Court to try to recoup the $120,000 she says she spent on the animals.

After the Feb. 3 hearing, Baltimore County Animal Services alerted foster families that the animals had to be returned this week.

“I don’t know who is getting her. She could be sold somewhere,” said Karen Oakjones, who returned the pet she’s fostered for six months to the Baldwin shelter Wednesday. “It blows my mind that she has any say in this.”

A woman who also returned one of Klein’s pets said she spent hundreds of dollars to make the animal comfortable and wanted to adopt him. She asked not to be named because she wants to foster again. She said she worries Klein will get the animals back — though Greenberg said that would land her in jail. Under her probation, animal services can enter her home to ensure she’s not violating her probation.

Baltimore County spokeswoman Erica Palmisano said the county is “disappointed by the outcome of this case and remain concerned about the welfare of the animals.”

She said County Executive Kathy Klausmeier wants to strengthen laws and policies to protect animals. Though the animal services department works with law enforcement, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger decides pleas.

He called the outcome “a reasonable conclusion.”

The county spent $408,000 caring for Klein’s animals, Palmisano said. A law passed in 2022 allows counties to recoup those costs, but only if defendants plead guilty or are convicted. The Alford plea, Radov said, removes that option.

Alford pleas avoid expensive trials. But in animal cases, they hinder justice, said Anne George, a member of the county’s Animal Advisory Commission.

“They should never [have] accepted the Alford plea,” George said.

Ethan Greenberg, who represented Klein before he turned the case over to his father, said the county could have asked the court to terminate Klein’s ownership of the animals, “but they didn’t.”

Shellenberger said the probation conditions were sufficient to protect the animals.

Animal control officers visited Klein’s home several times over the last five years. On the day of her arrest in February 2025, body cams captured conditions in 28 videos and 160 photos; the Baltimore County Police would not release them because the case isn’t over.

A judge set her bail at $2,500 and ordered no contact with animals.

At her sentencing hearing, Walsh described the conditions inside Klein’s home as in “great disrepair.”

“There was an overwhelming odor throughout the home. There was animal rage throughout the home.”

But ultimately, Walsh said, the issue was more hoarding than abuse. Klein had, he said, “simply more animals than one person can care for.”

Larry Greenberg agreed: “If she were an abuser, she would never have another animal again.”

But two of Klein’s animals — a cat and a rabbit — had to be euthanized. Shelter workers say the birds were so stressed some plucked out their own feathers. Typically friendly reptiles recoiled at touches.

According to an email the shelter sent, one of Klein’s dogs, a Boerboel-mix named Jack, came in with “multiple scarring and scabbing of the head, face and neck consistent with bites, primarily on the right side of the face. Multiple scabs and wounds were also present throughout his body.”

Jack was the only animal that Klein agreed to surrender. The shelter is seeking a rescue for him.

“In his short year of life, he wasn’t shown the way to live. He’s only been in fight or flight mode,” the email continued. “That was until a dedicated team here at the shelter was determined to not ‘fix’ Jack, but to make whatever time he had with us, as comfortable and manageable as possible.”