The bizarre animal-cruelty case of Missing Persons frontwoman Dale Bozzio is far from over.Despite her distrust of the New Hampshire justice system, the embattled '80s New Wave singer filed an 11th-hour appeal on May 27 to continue fighting charges that she abandoned more than a dozen filthy, flea-ridden felines in her rural Ossipee, New Hampshire, log home with no food or water for at least a week last fall.
In a 50-minute phone interview last month, Bozzio emotionally claimed the situation resulted from a hired caretaker's inability to check on the feral cats. The conditions quickly deteriorated — two cats (including one trapped in a cage) perished and others starved, while litter boxes overflowed with feces. Twelve more cats had to be euthanized.
"I don't want anyone to think I deliberately did harm," she stressed.
In March, a New Hampshire district judge declared Bozzio responsible because the neglect "had persisted for some time." On May 21, she was sentenced to 90 days in jail with 60 days deferred.
Her appeal means a jury will decide Bozzio's fate at Carroll County Superior Court in Ossipee sometime in late October. In the meantime, she'll face at least two small-claims suits from former landlords in nearby towns seeking $3500 in unpaid rent and money to repair damage caused by her cats.
Free from the slammer for at least four more months, Bozzio will also hit the road with Missing Persons, playing a string of club dates in Southern California; an August 8 show in Londonderry, New Hampshire (the proceeds of which her manager promised to donate to the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals); and appearances on the Regeneration Tour — featuring other nostalgia acts like Berlin and Wang Chung — in Detroit, Toronto, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas.
Bozzio wasn't on the bill for the Regeneration Tour's Boston stop at the House of Blues earlier this week.
