Pair avoid prison in abuse case
Pair avoid prison in abuse case
By Sara Israelsen
Deseret Morning News
Published: January 10, 2006
PROVO — The woman who adopted two Russian children at the center of a Utah County child-abuse case is decrying the no-jail-time plea deal struck by the couple who were accused of starving and beating the children.
Le Ann Emery said Monday she couldn't understand why Reed and Teresa Hansen would spend so much money on a foreign adoption — and then not treat the children with utmost tenderness, love and care.
"How dare they do what they did," Emery told 4th District Judge Gary Stott Monday at a court hearing during which the Hansens were sentenced.
The Hansens were accused of withholding food as a form of punishment, beating the children with a wooden stick and forcing one to sleep in a bathtub without a blanket or pajamas.
Emery told Stott that she wanted to see the Hansens "behind bars."
The Hansens were charged in 2002 with felony charges of child abuse/neglect. The couple avoided jail time under a plea agreement reached last week with the Utah County Attorney's Office.
The agreement required the Hansens to plead guilty to or not contest lesser charges. They also must pay $17,500 into a court-maintained fund for each child to be used for college or a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Reed Hansen, 38, was sentenced Monday for two amended charges of class B misdemeanors of attempted reckless endangerment. He pleaded no contest to those charges.
His wife Teresa, 41, was sentenced for two class A misdemeanors of reckless endangerment, to which she previously pleaded guilty.
In addition to the payment into a fund, the Hansens will be put on a 24-month court probation.
In an earlier case, Teresa Hansen pleaded no-contest to a class A misdemeanor of child abuse. The probation status for that charge will run concurrent with the probation time for this recent sentencing.
The deal stopped a 10-week jury trial scheduled to start Monday and brought a bit of closure to the new families of the adopted children.
It's only closure in some ways, the judge reminded those in court.
"Our children deserve to know that the trust they place in us as caretakers will be honored," Stott said. "When parents violate that trust, it leaves permanent scars on the lives of little ones."
The Emerys, who adopted the Russian siblings in January 2003, said the two are a perfect fit in their family, which also includes two biological children. The brother and sister, who were adopted from Russia, were 4 and 5 when the charges were filed. They are 7 and 8.
Although the siblings have some developmental challenges — and are a bit behind in school — they are growing and eating normally now, Emery said.
"They are our children," she said. "They're safe, happy, healthy — that's what's important."
Shauna Johnson, who adopted the other, older Russian child whom the Hansens also initially adopted, and whose abuse led to the misdemeanor charge for which Teresa Hansen is on probation, also said she was angry with the abuse but didn't want the couple to go to jail.
Johnson said jail time would split up another family. The Hansens have five biological children.
Johnson said her adopted son will continue to struggle because of the experiences with the Hansens.
Attorneys for the Hansens disagree about how the children came to be in their malnourished state.
Based on his research of Russian orphanages, Shelden Carter, attorney for Reed Hansen, said he learned that many children develop lasting conditions while in the orphanages.
He said he thinks the children's health problems were a result of poor care in Russia that the Hansens had to deal with after adopting the children.
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com