A woman accused of abusing a child, who was her ward, was placed on one year of probation.
Malonie L. O’Toole, 47, of Green River appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a sentencing hearing to three counts of child abuse.
In exchange for O’Toole’s guilty plea to a reduced misdemeanor charge of reckless endangering, all of the other charges were dismissed. O’Toole was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and placed on one year of unsupervised probation.
According to court documents, on Feb. 23, 2016, a Green River Police officer spoke with a Lincoln Middle School counselor about a possible child abuse case in the home of a LMS student.
On Feb. 25, 2016, officers told O’Toole about the talks they had with her children. One child told the officers that on Feb. 26, 2016, her mother told them to go pack their things because the Department of Family Services was going to come and take them away and put them in foster care because they reported the abuse.
On Feb. 26, 2016, Washington Elementary School reported one of O’Toole’s children came to school with a black eye. Both of the younger children reported the child with the black eye had been slapped in the face by O’Toole the night before. All three children were placed into protective custody on Feb. 26, 2016, while her son was placed into protective custody on Feb. 29, 2016.
The oldest daughter told the officers her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Troy Kelly, are not home very often, which leaves her and her brother in care of the younger children, which are wards to O’Toole. She also told the officers she saw her mother become physically violent with one of the wards, by slapping her in the face, hitting her on top of the head with a brush, spanking her with a wooden spoon or dragging her up the stairs by her ponytail.
The child also recalled how on Feb. 19, 2016, when her sister got home from school she was acting funny. She noticed she had a black eye and asked her what happened. At first, her sister wouldn’t tell her, but then admitted O’Toole had picked her up from school earlier that day and slapped her in the face.
The abused girl was also interviewed by an officer, but said she was warned about telling anyone about what happened in the home by O’Toole. She said she would get in a lot of trouble if O’Toole found out.
The girl said she recently found out O’Toole wasn’t her real mother and that she gets punished a lot for things she doesn’t even understand.
The girl recalled O’Toole picking her up from school to see if she had worn makeup to school. When they got home, O’Toole slapped her with alternating hands while screaming at her about wearing makeup to school. After O’Toole finished getting ready for work, she took her back to school. She later discovered she had a black eye.
The girl said she was coming home from a friend’s house one time and O’Toole picked her up and slammed her head into the car’s console and O’Toole wouldn’t let her up.
She said one time O’Toole dragged her up the stairs by her ponytail because she had been wearing makeup to school. After reaching the top of the stairs, O’Toole slapped her about seven times.
She also told an officer that on Feb. 25, 2016, O’Toole hit her in the head and eye because she had left a glass of water on the table, which had confused her because she had done it before without O’Toole getting angry.
The girl covered her eye from the officer.
When she was asked why, the girl said O’Toole told her if she told anyone what happened she would ground her to her room, slap her, pull her hair and spank her with a wooden spoon on the butt and lower back.
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