An eviction on a quiet Longmeadow street turned chaotic enough for a courtroom finale, as a Hampden County jury this week convicted 59-year-old Rorie Susan Woods of unleashing honeybees on law enforcement during an Oct. 12, 2022 removal on Memery Lane. Jurors found Woods guilty on four counts of simple assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault after several deputies and bystanders were stung, with one person taken to the hospital. A judge sentenced her to six months in jail, with credit for 148 days already served.
What happened at the eviction
According to the Hampden County Sheriffs Office, deputies were carrying out a court-ordered eviction at 49 Memery Lane when Woods arrived in an SUV towing a flatbed stacked with manufactured beehives. The sheriffs office said Woods began opening and agitating the boxes, then smashed a lid and flipped one hive off the trailer, sending a swarm of bees into the driveway and nearby yards.
Woods then put on a professional beekeeper suit and started moving additional hives closer to the front door of the home, the release states, before deputies stepped in and arrested her.
Stings, a taunt and mass bee deaths
Several members of the sheriffs Civil Process Division were stung in the chaos, including one deputy who took stings to the face and head, and another who was hospitalized, while nearby residents were also put at risk, as reported by WCVB. According to The Boston Globe, deputies said Woods responded, “Oh, you’re allergic? Good,” when told some staff were allergic to bee stings.
News coverage has also noted that thousands of honeybees died in the incident, collateral damage in what started as a routine eviction and turned into a literal sting operation.
Verdict, sentence and a Tennessee arrest
Woods did not show up for an August 2025 court date and was later arrested at a Tennessee motel before being brought back to Massachusetts, Western Mass News reported. A five-day trial this month ended with the jury finding her guilty and the judge imposing a six-month sentence, with credit for 148 days already served, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Legal notes
Prosecutors secured convictions on four counts of simple assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault. The sheriffs office has said Woods’s deliberate release of the hives put lives in danger and could have led to more serious charges if anyone had suffered a worse outcome.
Coverage of the verdict spread across local and regional outlets, including the Tampa Free Press, and the sheriffs media release includes photos and the departments full statement on the case.
