A disturbing Pulaski County child abuse case will have to wait a little longer for a resolution because one the victim’s stepmother no-showed her plea hearing.
Patricia Meeks is one of a group of people charged with neglect of a dependent after a three-year-old girl was discovered to be essentially living in a filthy, urine-soaked, bug-filled box that was locked.
Meeks took a plea deal with prosecutors, but didn’t show up to court Thursday. That morning, the prosecutor filed an amended charge that would have lowered her maximum term in prison from six years to two and a half years.
Another person in the case, Christopher Short, will have his plea hearing in March. Donna Short died in a car crash last year before her case could be resolved.
The others charged with Failure to Report will face a joint jury trial in May.
1 comment
Signed a plea agreement for 2 years????!!!!!! Are you kidding me! Why is there any room for a plea agreement in this case??? Its amazing that possession of marijuana carries the same penalty as imprisoning a child in a cockroach filled box. I hope the people of Pulaski county stand up call the judge and prosecutors office and tell them no to a plea deal. The child deserves real justice for what happened to her, in spite of the cost of a trial.