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Probation for non-protective military mother |
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Friday, 10 April 2009 04:07 |
Arkansas prosecutors have offered Senior Airman Sharilyn Cotton Lopez probation for doing nothing to stop repeated abuse and murder of her toddler.
Lopez was being prosecuted under a Class B felony of permitting child abuse.
Police say Ausencio Lopez brutalized Lopez' two year-old son Jaden over a long period of time, while Lopez' refused to protect the child. He finally died at the Arkansas Children's Hospital with massive head injuries and broken bones.
Senior Airman Lopez claimed her son fell out of bed.
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims agreed to a plea bargain that gives Lopez five years' probation and a $1,000 fine. Now military officials will have to determine whether to also take action under military law.
Prosecutors say they offered probation after Lopez' father, Roger Cotton, "recanted a claim he made to police saying that his daughter had told him she was concerned about how rough her husband disciplined the boy," says the paper. Prosecutors often negotiate light sentences when lacking the evidence they want, sometimes out of necessity, though often for the sake of expediency, wishing to avoid the time and risk of a trial.
The Democrat-Gazette says that Lopez was pregnant at the time of Jaden's murder. She bore a third child last year, while awaiting trial.
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