Kenyan Ear-biter sentenced to 60 days in jail

Susan Mukuhi Mwarabu

Susan Mwarabu didn’t offer any explanation for her behavior but offered many apologies.

By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune

Last update: May 20, 2010 – 5:02 PM

Susan Mwarabu apologized profusely and repeatedly Thursday before she was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court for biting off — and apparently swallowing — part of a man’s ear.

“I’ve disappointed myself, my family and hundreds of students,” said Mwarabu, who lost her teaching job at Northfield Middle School after she was charged in the incident. It happened March 14 at the Uptowner Cafe at Grand Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul.

Mwarabu, 31, of Rochester, pleaded guilty April 5 to felony third-degree assault.

After listening to the victim, Christopher Hough, 33, and the defendant, District Judge Rosanne Nathanson gave Mwarabu a stay of imposition sentence and up to five years on probation. She was ordered to serve 60 days, but can do so on home monitoring or other programming if she is eligible. If she complies with probation’s conditions and doesn’t get into any more trouble, the conviction eventually will become a gross misdemeanor.

According to court documents, when police arrived at the Uptowner about 4:20 a.m., Hough told them he had been eating with friends. Four women, including Mwarabu, who appeared intoxicated, were at another table. The two groups did not know each other.

One of Hough’s friends commented about one of the women as she ate. Mwarabu “gave him a look” and later approached the friend. The friend pushed her away. Mwarabu then started licking Hough’s ear and he also “moved her back from him.”

She then bit off part of Hough’s ear, leaving him bleeding and in shock. One of the men with Hough said he saw Mwarabu pick the piece of ear off the floor and put it in her mouth.

“What Susan Mwarabu did to me on March 14 will never make sense,” Hough told the court Thursday.

He said his 12-year-old daughter was afraid to go home for days afterward for fear that someone would come and hurt her father. He may have to have plastic surgery.

Source: Star Tribune