Stacey Champion, puppy mailer, gets her court date

Stacey Champion wanted her puppy and her money back.

Stacey Champion, the 39-year-old Minneapolis woman who thought it would be a brilliant idea to seal a puppy in an airless cardboard box and mail it to Georgia, is going to stand trial on misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.

And here's a twist: She'll be represented by University of Minnesota law professor Steve Simon, and one of his students.

It'll be interesting to see how they defend the woman, who tried to pass the package off as containing a toy robot for her son in Atlanta. When she figured out that eagle-eyed postal workers had rescued the puppy, she returned and demanded her $22 shipping fee. Then she tried and failed to get the puppy back.

"Guess," the Priority Mail puppy.

If the poodle-Schnauzer mix named "Guess" had actually been shipped -- in the unpressurized belly of a jet -- it almost certainly would have died.

Instead, Guess went home with a Minneapolis woman chosen by lottery.

Champion is due in Hennepin County District Court on July 7.

Previous Priority Mail puppy stories:

• Stacey Champion tried to mail a poodle to Georgia in an airless box
• Stacey Champion wants her Priority Mail puppy back
• Stacey Champion will not get her Priority Mail puppy back
• The other Stacey Champion: I didn't mail that puppy!
• Stacey Champion's Priority Mail puppy "Guess" going up for adoption
• Terri Ford adopts Guess the Priority Mail puppy