The sheriff’s deputies were already at the open double doors of a $1.9 million mansion on a leafy cul-de-sac in suburban Longmeadow, Mass., on a crisp autumn morning in 2022, serving eviction papers.
Then an S.U.V. with an attached trailer carrying wooden crates pulled into the semicircular driveway, according to a video posted by MassLive.
“Hey, hey, hey, she has a truck full of bees,” one deputy can be heard telling another, who responded, “What?”
The driver, Rebecca Woods, a beekeeper, had already gotten out and was lifting the lid off a stack of beehives. She said in a court affidavit that her intent was to let the bees forage on the “lovely flowering landscape,” while also protesting the eviction.
But in the tussle over the remaining crates, some toppled, releasing hundreds more bees, which stung the deputies and other sheriff’s staff members multiple times, including one who suffered stings to the face and head, and another who was hospitalized.
Ms. Woods, who did not live at the home, was convicted by a jury in district court in Springfield, Mass., this month of using the bees as a weapon against the deputies.
She was sentenced to six months in county jail. Her lawyer, Mary Saldarelli, said on Sunday that because she had been held without bail for months already, Ms. Woods most likely would spend only one or two more weeks in jail.
“This was unlike anything our team has ever experienced,” the Hampden County sheriff, Nick Cocchi, said in a statement after the verdict.
The case crept along for years, in part because Ms. Woods missed an earlier trial date, and was found in a motel room in Tennessee. But she refused to waive extradition back to Massachusetts for more than three months, until a warrant was issued, and she was returned.
She had also been representing herself in court until Ms. Saldarelli was appointed her defense lawyer at the start of the trial.
Ms. Woods, now 59, has been the subject of several evictions herself, Ms. Saldarelli said. Ms. Woods advocates on behalf of people harmed by predatory lending, loan schemes that let lenders charge borrowers sky-high interest rates.
Ms. Woods said in her affidavit that she was trying to save her friend’s home because he was almost 80 years old and was undergoing cancer treatment.
“It really was just a sincere hope that he would not suffer the humiliation and devastation of going through an eviction, of losing your home,” Ms. Saldarelli said on Sunday.
While Ms. Woods was at the house, trying to delay the eviction, the owner had gone to the public library to use a computer to file an emergency stay of the order.
Amid the confusion of the confrontation, Ms. Woods donned a beekeeper suit, according to the video. While she was trying to move more beehives toward the home, two sheriff’s deputies tackled her, forcing her to the ground to arrest her, as bees swarmed the front yard.
In the video, one deputy can be seen waving his arms, trying to shoo away the bees.
When she was told that some deputies were allergic to bees, the sheriff’s office said that Ms. Woods responded: “Oh, you’re allergic? Good.”
Ms. Saldarelli said “it was a reaction to having your face put down in the pavement and being shoved there and kept there.”
The sheriff’s office said the release of the bees put deputies at risk, and also endangered neighbors, especially those with severe allergies. Thousands of bees died during the chaotic scene, officials said, because some of the hives fell and crushed many bees and their colonies, and honeybees die after stinging humans.
Jurors acquitted Ms. Woods of the seven felonies that she had been charged with and instead found her guilty of four misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault.
Ms. Saldarelli said Ms. Woods maintained her innocence and had filed a notice of appeal. “So she is not acquiescing in any way, shape or form,” she added.
The sheriff’s office said Ms. Woods “ultimately failed in her attempt to stop the eviction, which is a matter determined by the courts — not the sheriff’s office.”
“We don’t just show up to enforce an order,” Sheriff Cocchi said in the statement. “We try to help people through difficult situations. That commitment doesn’t change, even in the face of something like this.”
Georgia Gee contributed research.
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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