A northern Minnesota woman has been sentenced for biting off the ear of another woman during a fight at a New Year's Day party, leading to numerous reattachment surgeries for the victim.
Joelyn R. Hart, 25, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Duluth to six months in jail and five years' probation for maiming Shena Martin, 30, in a garage on the Red Lake Indian Reservation on Jan. 1, 2009.
"I never meant to [do] what I did," Hart said in a pre-sentencing filing with the court. "I realized I've messed things up for her. She may not believe me, but I am sorry. It went way too far."
During the argument and fight at the party at the home of her boyfriend's father, Hart also bit the woman's nose.
Witnesses said both women had been drinking and the argument involved Martin taking up a long-running feud for a friend, according to court documents.
More than half of the right ear was retrieved and preserved in saline and on ice, allowing emergency room doctors to reattach it, the court documents added.
Martin required numerous reconstructive surgeries, according to the U.S. attorney's office, but she is permanently disfigured and deals with pain and infection.
PAUL WALSH
