Friday, March 19, 1999
Clermont mother of four found guilty of rape, assault
She could receive life in prison for her crimes
BY PERRY BROTHERS and TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BATAVIA — A Clermont County jury Thursday evening found a mother of four guilty of rape and assault of her children.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for about five hours before returning the guilty verdicts on four counts of rape and four counts of felonious assault.
The defendant, 34, of Bethel, was found not guilty of two other counts of felonious sexual penetration. She shook her head as the verdicts were read.
Clermont County Prosecutor Daniel “Woody” Breyer was pleased.
“I'm ecstatic, I'm very happy with the verdict. I've been working with these kids for two years. How could I not be (ecstatic)?” he said.
“No child should have had to have grown up like these kids did.”
Defense attorney Michael Kennedy declined to comment.
The mother could recived life in prison. A sentencing date will be set within the next two weeks. The Cincinnati Enquirer is not naming her to protect the identities of the children.
The incidents occurred in the early 1990s. Charges were filed in 1997.
The four children — two boys, 10 and 16, and two girls, 7 and 13 — are in various foster care programs. Mr. Breyer said he hopes the children will be able to move on with their lives.
Earlier, during closing arguments in Clermont County Common Pleas Court, the defendant wrote notes and showed little emotion as Mr. Breyer recounted a litany of horrific accusations.
Prosecutors said the two sisters were repeatedly raped while their mother participated.
Mr. Breyer said the daughters were prostituted for, among other things, beer and rent money and that the mother on occasion held the girls down, instructing one: “Do what he says and get it over with.” It was revealed at trial that the defendant told authorities she was molested by her father when she was a child.
Mr. Breyer reminded jurors of the videotaped testimony last week of the daughters, who testified about threats following repeated rapes by their fathers and others. One girl's father is now in prison for rape, the other daughter's father committed suicide in 1997 after being questioned by police about the case.
“Shut up and take it like a woman,” the defendant allegedly told one daughter during an incident.
Mr. Kennedy did not dispute the squalid living conditions in which the defendant was raising her children. At one point, there was no heat in the home. When the girls were taken to foster homes, their hair was lice-infested. They were underdeveloped mentally.
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