No one is being prosecuted for physically and sexually abusing a 2-year-old boy in August 2018, but the woman who failed to promptly seek help for him will serve three years of probation.
Jacqueline Hurst, 36, pleaded no contest to child neglect, a third-degree felony, and the judge withheld an adjudication of guilt.
Under the plea agreement, Hurst cannot have with contact the victim and will not contest the state’s review concerning termination of parental rights. She also must submit to a DNA test and random drug screening and serve 100 hours of community service.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies had been called to a local hospital about an injured child in August 2018.
The then-2-year-old boy’s head, face and private area were bruised, and there was a hand print on the left side of his chest, deputies said at the time. The boy’s buttocks were lacerated. Deputies said the boy had signs of sexual and physical abuse, including blood on his diaper.
Hurst said
Larry Gene Stevens, now 39, had told her the boy had fallen from the crib, according to MCSO.
She said she was at work at the time and Stevens refused to send her any pictures.
Stevens told her the child was fine, she said. When she got home, she checked the child and he was asleep and covered in urine, according to MCSO reports.
Authorities did not disclose the relationships between the boy, Hurst and Stevens.
Hurst told deputies that, when she saw the child’s injuries, she ran outside and screamed for someone to call 911. But Stevens told her to calm down, she said, and he refused to call 911.
Hurst said she was afraid to leave but stayed with the boy until the next morning and took him to work so she could call 911.
Stevens was eventually arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse and sexual battery. He denied abusing the boy.
Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Stevens, citing insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Stevens was the person who caused the boy’s injuries. There were other people in the residence who could have had unsupervised access to the victim during the time he was injured.
Also, without DNA evidence, a witness or an admission, a conviction at trial was considered unlikely.