Woman fined $300 for ex-lax cookie prank

WAUSAU, Wis., April 26 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin woman accused of giving laxative-laced cookies to her college professor was ordered to pay a $300 fine.

Becky Riiser, 38, of Wausau, pleaded no contest Thursday to three misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges and was fined after prosecutors agreed to reduce the original felony charge of placing a foreign object in food, the Wausau Daily Herald reported Monday.

Riiser admitted to investigators she had placed cookies laced with ex-lax outside the office door of University of Wisconsin Marathon County biology Professor Aruni Pehl-DeSilva in December 2009. The professor became ill after eating one of the cookies, prosecutors said.

"It was supposed to be a stupid, practical joke," Riiser wrote in a January 2010 apology letter to Pehl-DeSilva. "It was something I didn't think through."

Marathon County Circuit Judge Greg Huber called Riiser's actions "demeaning."

"The cruelty of [the act] is uncalled for," Huber said to Riiser. "For someone of your maturity, [this] was totally unexpected."