Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- An Illinois judge sentenced a former groom who fondled a female horse at a racetrack to probation and counseling. Esbin Cal-Orozco, 29, a former groom at Arlington Park Racetrack in Arlington Heights, a suburb northwest of Chicago, was convicted of having sexual contact with an animal but was spared a maximum three-year prison term by Judge Thomas Fecarotta, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday. Advertisement Fecarotta instead sentenced Cal-Orozoco to two years of probation and mandatory sex offender counseling. "I believe this defendant is in dire need of counseling," Fecarotta said in handing down the sentence. The judge said the defendant also received credit for the nearly five months he spent in jail following his September arrest. Authorities said Cal-Orozoco was arrested after another worker at the racetrack noticed the filly was tied oddly in her stall with hay bales and buckets arranged behind her. Police said Cal-Orozoco admitted to fondling the horse. Officials said the horse was not injured and has continued to race at the track since the incident.
