Christian County Circuit Court Judge John Atkins took swift action on two motions Monday in the case against four women charged with alleged child abuse at the First United Methodist Church’s daycare between December 2018 and January 2019.
Hearing the discussions of special prosecutor Blake Chambers and four defending attorneys — Michael Thompson, Kenneth Bearden, Bill Deatherage and the newly-entered David Bundrick — granted both a change of indictment for former daycare director Abby Leach and Paige Williams from eight counts of “complicity of criminal abuse” to “principal liability,” as well as a 404 (b) notice in this case.
This could introduce prior “bad acts” into evidence during the trial.
Bundrick, representing Leach, didn’t have an objection to the change of indictment verbiage.
However, Deatherage, representing Williams, did — stating it represents an entirely different crime altogether.
Atkins said he didn’t believe amending the indictment at this point was “prejudicial,” allowing it to be filed while waiving formalities with arraignment.
This led to futher discussion wrapped about the Commonwealth’s superseding indictments, as well as the mountains of discovery recovered by the Hopkinsville Police Department. Defense argued that the unveiling of superseding indictments to the jury wasn’t important to the trial.
Atkins argued there had to be “relevancy” in order to bring these questions to light.
Concern for the 404 (b) notice came from the defending attorneys, too, citing the possibility that previous acts unrelated to the possible 2018 and 2019 crimes would be admitted into court and paint a prejudicial picture of their clients.
Deatherage noted this was the “danger” of joinder of defendants with different times and different offenses.
And Bundrick agreed.
Chambers said there would be plenty of testimony from the Commonwealth to make its point clear and concise.
Atkins said the introduction of this 404 (b) evidence would be admissible, relevant and that its value exceeded the possibility of prejudicial pretense.
Former daycare employees Ashley Simpson and Nina Morgan also face charges in this case, with Simpson under 30 counts of first-degree criminal abuse of a child under 12 years old, and Morgan under two counts of criminal abuse of a child under 12.
With the trial set for June, Atkins set forth an omnibus pre-trial conference for May 3 — in hopes of ironing final details before presenting to a jury.
