LEBANON — Mental illness spared Holli Burd from a five-year prison sentence Thursday for having sex with a 14-year-old boy under her care at a Fairfield Township home for abused and neglected children.

        Citing that and a “negligible” criminal record, Judge Neal Bronson sentenced the former One Way Farm employee to serve six months in the Warren County Jail on a charge of sexual battery.

        He also placed the 29-year-old Walnut Hills mother on probation for three years, ordered her to attend counseling, and labeled her a sex offender. That requires Ms. Burd to register her address with authorities for 10 years.

        “You were placed in a position of trust,” Judge Bronson chastised Ms. Burd during the hearing in common pleas court. “This was a child with a troubled background, and you made it more troubled than it started out.”

        Weeping, Ms. Burd offered apologies and assurances that she wouldn't offend again.

        “I do have a problem, and I'm in treatment for it,” she told the court.

        Defense attorney Timothy Cutcher said Ms. Burd suffers from bipolar disorder. At the time of the June incident, she had quit taking an experimental drug because she gained weight and experienced other side effects, he said. The mental illness, also called manic depression, is marked by severe mood swings.

        Mrs. Burd also was sexually and physically abused as a child, Mr. Cutcher said.

        Authorities said Ms. Burd had intercourse with the teen June 29 at a hotel in Lebanon where she was supposed to be supervising a visit with the boy's mother.

        In an agreement with prosecutors last month, Ms. Burd pleaded guilty to the felony charge, avoiding a grand jury hearing that could have resulted in additional charges.

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