An Ogle County jury found a Chicago woman guilty Tuesday of harassing Ogle County dispatchers and making a false report of a shooting at a rodeo near Rochelle in May 2025.

The two-day trial of Jodie Wiederkehr, 56, concluded Tuesday when the 12-person jury found her guilty of one count of false reporting, a Class 4 felony, and one count of harassment by telephone, a misdemeanor, after about two and a half hours of deliberations. Jurors found Wiederkehr not guilty of a second count of false reporting that was part of the charges filed against her in June 2025.

[ Ogle County dispatchers testify, prosecution rests its case on 1st day of Rochelle rodeo trial ]

It’s “disappointing,” Wiederkehr’s attorney Chris Carraway of Colorado said of the verdict. “We couldn’t present the case” that “we believe Wiederkehr has the right to” present.

Carraway told Shaw Local that they will be seeking a higher court’s review and Wiederkehr was advised by her lawyers not to comment for that reason.

The charges against Wiederkehr stemmed from May 25, 2025. On Monday, prosecutors presented evidence and testimony aiming to prove Wiederkehr was harassing police by making 27 calls that day and told two Ogle County dispatchers that she saw someone get shot at 16989 Ritchie Road, south of Rochelle, when she knew that was not true.

At trial, defense attorneys worked to establish a necessity defense, which says that a defendant can be justified in committing a crime if they did so to prevent a greater harm. They argued that Wiederkehr was trying to report animal cruelty actively occurring on the property and became desperate when police repeatedly refused to respond.

Wiederkehr serves as the campaign director of an animal advocacy group, SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness, which has alleged rodeos holding steer-tailing events at the Ritchie Road property, Rancho La Esperanza, are violating Illinois animal protection laws. The group has captured videos of the events via drones and urged Ogle County officials to shut it down since 2022. Its efforts ramped up in summer 2025.

[ Northern Illinois counties struggle to regulate Mexican-style rodeos, steer-tailing events in their area ]

Steer tailing, or coleadero, is when a horseback rider chases a running steer, grabs its tail and wraps the tail around the rider’s leg to slam the animal to the ground. It’s banned in Nebraska and in parts of California and Colorado. Illinois has animal cruelty laws, but none that specifically outlaw steer tailing.

On Monday, Ogle County dispatchers Taylor Burke and Susan Anders separately testified that on May 25, 2025, they received repeated calls from Wiederkehr. Prosecutors played the audio recordings for jurors.

In every call, Wiederkehr was mainly reporting animal injuries occurring at the rodeo. Burke and Anders explained in multiple calls that reports of animal cruelty related to the rodeo could only be taken in person due to the department’s protocol.

In one call to Burke, Wiederkehr said “I saw someone get shot.”

Wiederkehr then asked multiple times if an officer would be sent to the property if she reported that. In a call to Anders, Wiederkehr asked if police would investigate if she said she saw someone get shot.

“I was not proud of some of the calls I made and some of the things I said [to dispatchers],” Wiederkehr testified on Tuesday.

SHARK President Steve Hindi testified that he and other SHARK members have captured video footage via drones of the rodeos in Rochelle 21 times and said they’ve witnessed animals being beaten, various injuries such as broken horns, legs, severed tails and horses cut open by sharp spurs. Hindi said veterinary care was not provided to those animals and they’ve reported it to police, but it’s never been investigated.

On May 25, 2025, Hindi and two other SHARK members were parked a short distance from the rodeo, flying drones, and observed similar treatment and injuries to animals, he said.

After one steer-tailing event, a steer’s leg was injured and participants forced the steer to “hobble off” the arena floor. The steer then collapsed and participants began kicking the animal and twisting its tail, Hindi said, adding that he never saw any veterinary care provided.

That day, Wiederkehr testified, she was at her home in Chicago and was directed by her boss, Hindi, to report what the drones were documenting to police. Wiederkehr said she was continually receiving updates from SHARK members about multiple animals showing signs of exhaustion, leg injuries and severed tails.

“It was my hope that they [Ogle County dispatchers] would send officers to investigate what SHARK was witnessing,” Wiederkehr said.

Wiederkehr said she’s worked with various animal advocacy groups, including SHARK, for over three decades.

“I’m very passionate about animal protection,” Wiederkehr said.

Throughout the afternoon, Wiederkehr said, she started getting “frustrated” because she repeatedly was placed on hold, hung up on and transferred to a recorded voice message. She said she did not see the live footage of the injuries occurring that day, but has seen many videos of those injuries at previous rodeos.

“I was in despair. I was very worried that animals would suffer broken legs, have their tails ripped off as had happened the month prior” during a rodeo on that property, Wiederkehr said.

Carraway argued that Wiederkehr had a clear purpose of reporting animal abuse when she called dispatchers and that it directly contradicts the definition of harassment under Illinois law that says the purpose for contact must be solely to harass a person.

Ogle County Assistant State’s Attorney Matthew Liesten argued that all calls Wiederkehr made after being informed of the sheriff’s office protocol were solely to harass.

“She was calling to complain about a policy,” Ogle County Assistant State’s Attorney Allison Huntley said.

Wiederkehr testified that after 17 calls, police continued to refuse to respond to her reports of animal cruelty so she said she saw someone get shot because she thought it would cause a response.

“I’m ashamed of it. I was just desperately trying to get someone to do something. I really hoped they would send officers to the scene and they would witness what we [SHARK] witnessed,” Wiederkehr said.

Wiederkehr said that she felt dispatchers did not believe that a shooting had occurred and that she was speaking hypothetically.

After that report to Burke, Ogle County Sheriff’s Capt. Kyle White was dispatched to the property to investigate. No ambulance or other first responders were sent, according to court testimony.

“I know it’s a B.S. complaint. I have to check it out though,” White was heard saying to a person at the rodeo, a statement caught on his body camera footage that prosecutors played in court on Monday.

“It’s important to recognize this was not a sincere report of a crime,” Carraway told jurors in his closing statement Tuesday.

Carraway argued that it was not taken seriously by police because only one officer was dispatched. On White’s body camera footage he made multiple statements that he knew it wasn’t true and “sarcastically” referred to SHARK as the “wonderful people with drones,” Carraway said.

Two significant rulings on Tuesday

Carraway told Shaw Local that he believes two rulings Ogle County Associate Judge Anthony Peska made outside the presence of jurors Tuesday impacted their decision.

Defense attorneys had planned to present several short video clips captured by SHARK of the rodeo that day, but that morning Peska ruled that they couldn’t be shown.

Huntley argued that they weren’t relevant because Wiederkehr didn’t watch them before she called police.

“If she did not see these videos, they did not affect her and they should not be able to affect the listener,” Huntley said.

After the verdict was read, Carraway told Shaw Local that was a significant ruling because through witness testimony they “described the abuse, but couldn’t show it.”

The defense “felt the jury was entitled to see those videos,” Carraway said, adding that it would’ve led to a greater understanding of “why law enforcement needed to go out there.”

Tuesday afternoon, Peska also ruled that information related to a necessity defense couldn’t be included in jury instructions.

Liesten argued that the evidence and testimony presented during the trial showed Wiederkehr was in “no imminent danger” and defense attorneys didn’t present enough evidence to “meet burden for affirmative necessity defense.”

Carraway disagreed. He argued that the evidence showed Wiederkehr was receiving “real-time animal injury reports” and trying to prevent that from happening.

The prosecution “cites zero case law to support their proposition because none exists,” Carraway said.

Peska ruled against including the instructions and cited a 2016 court case that found a defendant isn’t justified in breaking the law under that defense when other reasonable options exist to prevent the greater harm.

Carraway argued that more recent case law says that it should be up to jurors to decide whether there were other reasonable options available.

Wiederkehr’s sentencing hearing is set at 1:30 p.m., July 28.