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Last updated on Thursday, July 26, 2012
(BLOOMFIELD) - A tearful Lyons woman was led from a Greene County courtroom Tuesday morning in red-colored handcuffs after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for child molesting.
Nick Schneider, of the Greene County Daily World reports, a negotiated plea agreement between 34-year-old Brandy (Jewell) Logan, of Lyons, and the prosecutor's office was filed June 19th in Greene Circuit Court.
She earlier had entered a guilty plea to a single count of child molesting - a class B felony, after originally being charged with Class A felony child molesting.
Prior to sentencing, defense attorney James Reister read a letter from Logan which she stated to the court, "I still can not believe I did this ... I'm very sorry and take responsibility."
Logan asked the court for leniency and requested "help" to overcome her past lifestyle that she alleged was influenced by her estranged husband.
The couple has recently divorced, she pointed out.
Circuit Judge Erik Allen sentenced Logan to 10 years with the Indiana Department of Correction with two years suspended. Following her release from prison, she will serve supervised probation for a two-year period.
The judge pointed out that because of the crime, Logan will be required to serve an enhanced executed sentence of just over 83 percent of her actual sentence.
She was granted credit for 390 days already served in the county jail awaiting trial.
Judge Allen ordered Logan to have no contact with the victim, unless allowed by a mental health provider.
In addition, Logan will be required to register as a violent sex offender for a 10-year period.
She was fined $50 and assessed $166 in court costs, a $250 sexual assault victim fee, a $100 child abuse prevention fee as well as a variety of probation fees, after her release.
Logan, with no prior criminal history, was arrested in July 2011 after she waited five days to report an alleged unrelated child molestation case in fear of being turned in for an incident that had occurred two years earlier, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by Greene County Sheriff's Department Deputy James O'Malley.
According to court records, Logan reported that around the year 2009 she had been chatting with an online friend, whom asked her to perform a sex act on a male child. She agreed and allegedly performed the act.
Logan, wearing a jail-issued black and white colored jump suit Tuesday, cried and laid her head on the table and shook it back and forth while the judge went over the provisions of her sentencing order.
While saying he believed that Logan has expressed "genuine remorse for her actions," Judge Allen said, "I can't understand how an anonymous person on the Internet can cause (someone) to commit this act."
Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw also called the case a hard one to understand.
He charged that Logan had "completely violated the trust" with the child in committing the act that she did.
The young victim will have to live with this for the rest of his life, the prosecutor said.
"There was no need for this to happen," Holtsclaw said.
Logan's attorney stressed there has been no evidence that would show that this was a sex crime.
Reister said his client is not a "violent sexual predator," but by state statute she is recognized as one.
He called her actions in 2009 completely out of character for her.
"One day she did one thing that she shouldn't have done," Reister told the court.
The attorney also charged that her incarceration has impeded her ability to get proper mental health treatment.
Christine Pryor, a therapist with Hamilton Center, testified that Logan suffers from bi-polar disorder as well as "Dependent Personality Disorder."
Dependent personality disorder is a long-term - chronic - condition in which people depend too much on others to meet their emotional and physical needs.
People with this disorder do not trust their own ability to make decisions. They may go to great lengths, even suffering abuse, to stay in a relationship.
Pryor noted that people with this kind of disorder will do whatever it takes to keep the person they are dependent on happy.
"She is easily manipulated and very vulnerable," the therapist testified.
Logan learned her fate after a nearly two-hour hearing that saw relatives, friends and acquaintances testified on her behalf.
All expressed shock and disbelief that Logan was charged with this nature of an offense.
She sang in her church choir, helped with church banquets and volunteered at the Lyons Senior Center.
Her grandmother, Doran Jewell, of Lyons, raised Logan and her brothers from a very young age. She said Logan was very helpful and assisted with the care of her dying grandfather.
"She was a good mother. This came as a complete surprise to me," her grandmother stated. "I could not believe it and still don't believe it."
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