Montgomery Father Gets 15 Years in Sex Abuse of Girl [adopted daughter's abuse]

Author: From news services and staff reports

A Montgomery County man was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison -- the maximum term -- for sexually abusing his adopted daughter from Costa Rica, who is 15 years old.

The man has begun serving another 15-year sentence, with 5 years suspended, for another child-abuse conviction involving one of his natural daughters.

Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Calvin Sanders rejected the defense attorney's plea for a concurrent jail term, ordering instead that the man serve the terms consecutively.

After the sentencing, defense attorney Cleopatra Campbell said the man, whose name is not being used to protect the identity of his daughters, is appealing his first conviction on the grounds that the child-abuse laws did not cover sexual molestation during part of the time the abuse occurred. Campbell said the 51-year-old man has not decided whether to appeal the case involving the younger daughter. In addition, two of the man's other natural daughters have brought sexual molestation charges against him. Separate trials in those cases are scheduled for spring.