Katherine Fraze appeared in Floyd County Superior Court No. 2 Thursday facing an eviction hearing, but Judge Glenn Hancock granted her a six-month extension to install a septic system on her property.

The Floyd County Health Department cited Fraze on Jan. 12 for not having a septic system and having a large amount of animal feces on the property and for the general unkempt state of the property.

Floyd County Health Officer Dr. Tom Harris said they gave Fraze the maximum time allowed under Indiana Code, 14 days, to communicate her plans for bringing her property into compliance. Fraze was then given another five days before the health department filed court papers seeking to have Fraze evicted.

Fraze, who faced eviction from 554 Old Corydon Ridge Road where she operates the Save That Dog Sanctuary, likened the judge’s decision to grant her an extension to David beating Goliath. She believes she has been unfairly targeted by county officials.

“There’s element of harassment that goes beyond due diligence,” Fraze said. “This all seems really a bit hysterical, the fact that they’re so unwilling to work with me.”

Fraze argues it would have been impossible to install a septic system in 20 days in the middle of winter. Harris said they would have been happy if Fraze had just communicated her plans to come into compliance, but he said she made no effort.

“Nobody realistically expects you to be able to put in a septic system in winter in that amount of time, but we do expect there to be some progress,” Harris said.

Fraze said the ongoing battle between her and the county has become personal. Fraze took particular exception to a previous statement from Harris that she has human feces on the ground near her trailer. She said the health department has no evidence and is just trying to state inflammatory remarks to slander her.

“They talked about me (at the court hearing) as if I was somehow mentally impaired,” Fraze said. “They’re intent was to be quite malicious.”

Fraze claims she and several others overheard health officials saying they would have her arrested for being on her property following the eviction hearing because it would cause her to violate the terms of her probation. She was charged in 2007 with four felonies after police found a large amount of marijuana growing on her property.

She pleaded guilty to cultivating marijuana in July and was sentenced to four months of home incarceration and three years of probation.

Harris said her criminal case has nothing to do with their enforcement of the health code and that he does not know anything about how their case would affect her criminal case.

Fraze said she has neighbors who still use outhouses and are not in compliance with Indiana law, but health department officials have not cited them. She said she has become the poster child for “selective enforcement.”

“It is clearly ridiculous,” Harris said in response to Fraze’s claims. “We don’t have selective enforcement. The only way we find out about something is if we are on the property for another reason or if someone makes a complaint.”

Harris said Fraze has not been in compliance for about 12 years. Her troubles began early last month when someone interested in adopting a dog was bit on her property. The animal shelter seized her 41 dogs because they could not determine which dogs did the biting.

On the same day, the health department issued the citations after it found a homemade septic system overflowing. Pipes from the toilet to the tank were found frozen.

Fraze said she had nowhere to take the dogs after her trailer was condemned, so she signed her dogs over to the shelter. The two dogs involved in the incident were euthanized, while the others were placed for adoption.

Fraze said she plans to keep two personal dogs, which are vaccinated, on her property. She said that they help to keep coyotes and rodents off her property. She said she will not rescue more dogs until after her property is in compliance.

She said she plans to have a septic system installed and to reopen her dog rescue then. She said she hopes the community will support her so she can begin work again soon.

Harris said that in the meantime anyone who goes on Fraze’s property is potentially at risk because it is unsanitary, a notion Fraze rejects.