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Foster mom sentenced; Woman gets 5 years for letting infant die

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St. Petersburg Times

Author: MARK JOURNEY

CLEARWATER - Judith Lundy, a white woman convicted of allowing a black foster child to die of dehydration in a steamy room that reeked of urine, apologized Tuesday at her sentencing hearing.

''I'm very, very sorry for what has happened,'' Mrs. Lundy told a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge. ''It has been a very, very tragic situation. . . . I do take full responsibility.''

Judge Susan Schaeffer sentenced Mrs. Lundy to five years in prison for allowing 4-month-old Corey Greer to die because touching the infant gave her ''the willies.'' Judge Schaeffer could have sentenced the former foster mother to a maximum of seven years in prison.

Defense attorney Ky Koch had asked Schaeffer to sentence Mrs. Lundy to 10 years' probation, including two years of house arrest. But even before the trial began, Schaeffer said she would sentence Mrs. Lundy to at least three years if she was convicted.

Koch said Mrs. Lundy could be freed in six to eight months.

Schaeffer allowed Mrs. Lundy to remain free on $5,000 bail, pending an appeal of her conviction.

After the sentencing, Schaeffer acknowledged that Mrs. Lundy could be harassed in prison because of her alleged racism, but she said that did not affect the sentence. ''A judge can't make (a) decision based on what goes on in prison, or nobody would go to prison.''

Koch said he also is worried that the physical demands of prison could be too much for the 50-year-old woman. He said Mrs. Lundy is in such poor physical condition that she recently had to be treated for gangrene of the leg.

Koch asked the judge for leniency, arguing that Mrs. Lundy has no criminal record and for years was considered a model foster mother. Once the owner of a large Treasure Island home with a swimming pool, Mrs. Lundy now has only $28 in her bank account, he said.

''This has been a particularly difficult case for me,'' Koch said. ''I've gotten to know this lady very well. . . . I'll forever believe in this lady's innocence.''

Koch insisted that state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) officials shared the blame for Corey's death. When Corey died July 21, 1985, Mrs. Lundy was caring for 12 foster children and her own daughter. She was licensed by HRS to care for only four children.

After Corey's death, HRS officials admitted they failed to make sure that foster children were placed in clean, uncrowded foster homes. Eventually, 13 HRS employees were disciplined and major changes were made in the way HRS monitors foster homes.

Schaeffer agreed that HRS officials had been negligent in allowing Mrs. Lundy to care for so many children, but she said they were not on trial.

''HRS doesn't stand before me,'' she said.

Prosecutors Mary McKeown and Douglas Crow said during the trial that Corey died of dehydration and too much sodium in his blood. They blamed Mrs. Lundy, saying she neglected Corey because he was black.

Mrs. Lundy left Corey in a hot room that reeked of urine and feces, and allowed another 8-year-old foster child to care for him, prosecutors said. The day Corey died, his weight had dropped dramatically and his eyes and brain had shrunk from lack of fluids, doctors testified.

The 8-year-old testified during the trial that she told Mrs. Lundy the infant appeared sick the night before he died. But Mrs. Lundy ignored the warning, prosecutors said.

Witnesses also said that Mrs. Lundy told them she got the ''willies'' when she touched black children. They said she compared Corey and his sister with apes and referred to the boy as a ''black blob.''

1988 Aug 10