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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah woman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor child abuse charge after authorities said her 9-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by three men while her mother was smoking methamphetamine in a garage.
The woman was sentenced to four months in jail in a plea deal with prosecutors that reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, according to court documents.
She was also ordered to undergo drug treatment and serve probation. She'll get credit for 87 days already served under the plea entered last week.
Defense attorney Lance Dean didn't immediately return a call Thursday from The Associate Press seeking comment.
The AP is withholding the name of the woman to protect the identity of her child.
The woman was accused of leaving the girl asleep on a couch in Uintah County while she went to use drugs with people she knew from jail over Easter weekend, prosecutors said.
The men who were staying at the home took the child into another room and assaulted her, prosecutors said. When her mother returned, the girl said she wanted to leave. Two days later, the girl told her mother about the assault, and the woman reported it to police.
The girl has been placed in the care of child welfare workers.
Four men were initially charged in the case, but charges against one were dropped after the mother couldn't be found to testify at an evidence hearing.
Larson RonDeau, 37, Jerry Flatlip, 30, and Randall Flatlip, 26, have all been ordered to stand trial on charges of rape and sodomy of a child. They have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys were not immediate available for comment.
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