Sat, Sep 06 2008
|
|
Published July 08, 2008 09:01 pm - COLUMBUS, Kan. — A Columbus woman will be sentenced Aug. 19 after pleading guilty Tuesday to a reduced charge of felony attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Columbus woman pleads guilty to felony child-sex charge By Roger McKinney rmckinney@joplinglobe.com COLUMBUS, Kan. — A Columbus woman will be sentenced Aug. 19 after pleading guilty Tuesday to a reduced charge of felony attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Ashley Thompson, 23, was bound over for trial in September 2007 on three felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The victim was the then-14-year-old boy who had worked as the baby sitter for Thompson’s children at her house in Columbus. The original charges alleged Thompson had sex with the boy on Feb. 25 and March 1 and 2, 2007, at her house in Columbus. The original charges were dismissed when she pleaded guilty to the reduced charge as part of a plea agreement. Cherokee County District Judge Kent Lynch found Thompson guilty of the amended charge. Thompson’s attorney, Sam Marsh, told Lynch he would submit the transcript of the preliminary hearing as the factual basis of the charge. The victim wasn’t in the courtroom for the plea hearing, but the victim’s mother said before the hearing started that her son didn’t want to testify in front of Thompson again. “It has totally changed him,” she said of the situation. She said she agreed to the plea deal because her son wanted it. The victim’s mother said society has a double-standard about such crimes, and that if the incident involved a 23-year-old man having sex with a 14-year-old girl, the case would have gone to trial. She said as it is, she couldn’t take the chance that a member of the jury wouldn’t see anything wrong with a 23-year-old woman having sex with a 14-year-old boy. Thompson was 22 at the time of alleged sex acts. “It’s not right,” she said. “It’s not fair. He’s as much a victim as a 14-year-old girl.” She said she considered it a problem with society, rather than one of the legal system. Former Assistant Cherokee County Attorney Garth Adams prosecuted the case during the preliminary hearing, but County Attorney John Bullard had since taken over the prosecution. The plea agreement contained no specific recommendation as to sentencing, but Marsh said outside the courtroom that based on Thompson’s criminal history, she would be expected to be assessed probation. Thompson has been bound over for trial in Jasper County Circuit Court, Joplin, Mo., on a felony charge of second-degree statutory rape in an alleged incident in Jasper County, with the same alleged victim named. 
•
Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.
More from the N.E.Okla. & S.E. Kan. section
Cherokee County Commission hopes to find means to close new strip club
|
Print this story
E-mail this story
Post to del.icio.us
Discuss this story
Documentary to be featured at 10th annual Tar Creek conference w/ September 2008 EPA Tar Creek project progress report 
Frontenac man convicted in case involving threat
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
The Joplin Globe Publishing Company 117 East Fourth Street, Joplin, MO 64801 Using our site is your agreement to the terms and conditions. News: news@joplinglobe.com • (417)623-3480 Advertise with the Joplin Globe Copyright © 2006 The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO All rights reserved. |
Popular Business directory links - Joplin Apartments | Joplin Attorneys | Joplin Auto Dealers | Joplin Auto Parts | Joplin Auto Repair | Joplin Beauty Salons | Joplin Car Rental | Joplin Dentists | Joplin Doctors | Joplin Flowers | Joplin Hotels | Joplin Insurance | Joplin Loans | Joplin Mortgages | Joplin Movers | Joplin Pizza | Joplin Realtors | Joplin Restaurants | Joplin Storage | Joplin Tax Preparation | Joplin Travel | Joplin Featured | More...
|
|
Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. • CNHI Classified Advertising Network • CNHI News Service |