A pretrial conference was held in a Muhlenberg County courtroom Friday morning in the criminal child abuse case against the former pastor and the former daycare director at First United Methodist Church in Hopkinsville.
Paige Williams and Abby Leach are each charged with eight counts of complicity to first-degree criminal abuse of a child under 12. The two women are accused of “breaching” their duties to protect the children from the hands of former daycare workers Allison Simpson and Nina Morgan, who were both convicted in Christian County Circuit Court last year for their roles in this case.
Special Judge Brian Wiggins was assigned to the case after Christian Circuit Judge John Atkins recused himself from the case in August of last year.
In a video conference Friday morning, Williams and her defense attorney Bill Deatherage, Leach’s attorney David Bundrick and Special Prosecutor Blake Chambers appeared before Judge Wiggins, at which time Bundrick asked for another pretrial conference be scheduled before the trial.
Bundrick also informed the judge he had filed some in limine motions, which are motions made at the start of the trial requesting that the judge rule that certain evidence may not be introduced during the trial. Judge Wiggins stated that he had not received any motions and asked Bundrick about the nature of the motions. Bundrick said Leach and Williams are essentially charged with permitting others to engage in abuse and neither one has alleged to have personally mistreated a child. Bundrick said he believes the surveillance videos in question from the daycare are inflammatory and prejudicial to his client.
click to download audioJudge Wiggins asked Chambers to file a short written response to the motions. He set another video hearing for Monday afternoon, February 13, at 2:30.
The attorneys and Judge Wiggins also had some discussion about juror questionnaires and pulling from the Circuit and District Court panels in Christian County.
The jury trial for Williams and Leach is set to begin on February 27th.
Former daycare worker Allison Simpson was sentenced by Judge Atkins in July of 2022 to a total of 20 years in prison with former daycare worker Nina Morgan sentenced to one year in the Christian County Jail. Simpson was convicted by a jury in Christian Circuit Court in June of 2022 of twelve counts of criminal abuse of a child twelve or under, and Morgan was convicted of one count of third-degree criminal abuse of a child twelve or under.
