Penalty for Letting Dogs Run? 81-Year-Old Harford County Woman Gets Jail

Who says the law has no bite?

An 81-year-old woman who lives near Havre de Grace was thrown in jail overnight for allegedly letting her dogs run unleashed a year ago, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Mary Magdalene Root was jailed on $2,500 bail Wednesday and kept overnight at Harford County Detention Center before posting bail, the paper reported.

Root, who was present through a closed-circuit TV hookup from the Harford County Detention Center, had a bail hearing before Harford County District Court Judge Mimi Cooper in Bel Air Wednesday afternoon.

Tatiana David, of the public defender's office, asked the judge to release Root on her own recognizance, since Root had no prior convictions and needed to deal with her failing health, according to the Sun.

Cooper said no, the paper reported. The judge ordered that Root be held in lieu of $2,500 bail and, if she posted bond and was released, to have no animals on her property.

Root was released from jail early Thursday morning after a person family members characterized as a "stranger" paid the required 10 percent of her bail, $250, the paper reported. Vantina Gifford, 52, of Charlestown, said her mother is resting at her home in Cecil County and brought the dogs with her.

And how fierce were those dogs? One was a terrier mix and the other a chihuahua.