Plea agreement in child abuse case

GREENTOWN, Ind. (The Kokomo Tribune) - A Greentown couple accused of abusing its adopted children nearly three years ago at the then Four Seasons Farm avoided any jail time. However, under the terms of a plea agreement, Teresa and Jay Moody were prohibited from being foster parents or providing services to children under 18.

Howard County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark McCann said he reluctantly agreed with the plea in the case against the Moodys to save the young victims any further suffering.

"The Department of Family Services and I agreed it was in the best interest to resolve this via a plea versus a trial with great reservation," McCann said.

Police accused the parents of confining their adoptive children in a wire cage at their Greentown horse farm, Four Seasons Farm, 4282 S. 800 East, and denying them food.

The Moodys received two years suspended except for time served, and will be placed on supervised probation for two years. They both pleaded guilty to two Class D felony charge of neglect of a child.

The Moodys also are prohibited from being foster parents and from providing services, including counseling and therapy, to children under 18.

The case, which was scheduled to be tried Feb. 3 in Tipton Circuit Court, concluded in November with the plea bargain and sentencing.

No phone listing was available for the Moodys in Greentown. Their attorney, Mike Bolinger, did not return a phone message seeking comment.

This was the third plea filed in the case. In December 2006, McCann filed a recommended plea in the case, which would have given them probation and no jail time. That plea was denied by Howard Circuit Court Judge Lynn Murray. Tipton Circuit Court Judge Tom Lett then rejected a similar plea in August.

McCann said the only difference in the plea was the change from unsupervised probation to supervised probation.

The D felonies carry up to three years in prison for each offense.

"I was reluctant," McCann said of the pleas. "But taking [the children's] best interest into consideration, it was the right way to resolve this. Having the children go through a lengthy trial would be detrimental to their mental health and could cause them to digress."

The case was moved from Howard County to Tipton at Bolinger's request because of pretrial publicity in newspapers and on TV, according to court records.

The Moodys were arrested March 30, 2006, and were released the same day after posting $500, or 10 percent of their $5,000 bail.

State police and Howard County sheriff deputies began investigating the Moodys in late 2005 after hearing reports from school officials and visitors to the farm that they were abusing and neglecting their adoptive children, an 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.

The children were removed from the home in December 2005 and placed in foster care as the investigation got under way, court records state.

Officials filed charges on March 27, 2006, accusing the couple of confining the children in a wire cage at its Greentown horse farm and denying the children food, according to court records.

"This is one of the toughest cases I've had with the public taking two differing points of view," said McCann. "Some people I've talked to say they are the greatest people and others say they are awful - there's such a differing opinion from the public."

From our news gathering partner The Kokomo Tribune .