Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Amber Childs Sex Offender Violated Probation

"She's either going to complete sex offender treatment
or she's going to jail."

A woman convicted of sexually abusing a young boy will be spending the holidays in jail after a judge determined that she violated her probation, which required her to complete a sex offender treatment program.

At an evidentiary hearing on Monday, Judge Samuel McVey ordered 31-year-old Amber Childs to spend 30 days in jail. McVey ordered the sentence after an Adult Probation and Parole official testified that Childs had not progressed in her sex offender treatment program, and had not taken a required polygraph test. McVey also said he was concerned about methamphetamine and opiate use by Childs.

Childs pleaded no contest in October 2006 to two counts of lewdness involving a child and one count of attempted witness tampering. Prosecutors alleged that she sexually abused a 6-year-old boy in 1999 and 2000.

Kent Davis of APP said Childs had not progressed past level one of her four-stage sex offender program, despite having been sentenced nearly a year ago. Each level in the program is supposed to take about three months, Davis said, and a polygraph test is required to proceed to the second level. Davis said Childs had only started showing progress recently, after her probation agent requested a hearing over alleged probation violations.

Shelden Carter, Childs's defense attorney, asked McVey to allow her to report to the Utah County Jail after Christmas, but McVey declined, saying the sooner she completed the sentence, the better. McVey said Childs would also have to take weekly drug tests.

"The court believes that those are appropriate to get her attention ... and to deal with her drug abuse issues, and most importantly to protect society," McVey said.
"She's either going to complete sex offender treatment
or she's going to jail."

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