The Denver mother accused of keeping her four young sons in a tiny, feces-littered apartment pleaded guilty to one count of felony child abuse Friday.
Lorinda Bailey accepted a plea agreement during a brief hearing in Denver District Court. As part of the agreement, the six original charges filed against her, including four counts of felony child abuse, were dropped.
Bailey pleaded guilty to an added charge of reckless child abuse — a Class 5 felony — which names all four boys as victims.
Under that charge, the 36-year-old could face up to eight years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to cap her sentence at seven years in prison, but the judge has discretion to sentence her to probation.
A sentencing hearing has been set for Sept. 18. She remains free on bond.
Wayne Sperling, the father of the four boys, faces six counts of felony child abuse in the case. The 66-year-old pleaded not guilty in January and has since been sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for a competency exam.
His next court hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 17. Sperling remains free on bond.
Bailey and Sperling were arrested last October, after Denver police officers removed the four malnourished boys from the squalid apartment. None of the boys — who were ages 2, 4, 5 and 6 at the time — were potty trained, and they could speak only in grunts, according to an arrest affidavit.
During the hearing on Friday, Bailey spoke in quick, one-word answers as Denver District Court Judge Eric Elliff asked if she understood the plea agreement.
Sperling was not in the courtroom. During past hearings, Sperling and Bailey have sat in different rows and did not speak to each other.
The case is one of the worst child abuse cases the Denver District Attorney’s Office has ever prosecuted, said spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough.
“With the way the child abuse statute reads, this was a disposition we felt held her accountable as best we could under the law,” Kimbrough said.
Bailey and Sperling were eligible for felony counts in the case only because this was the second time they faced child abuse charges, Kimbrough said.
The two were known to Denver County child protective services before the boys were removed. In 2006 and 2009, both Sperling and Bailey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse charges in the 2006 case.
Each received a sentence of two years’ probation in that case.
Bailey’s parental rights for her three other children were terminated in 2009. Two of the children removed from the home in 2006 are now thriving with their family in Lamar.
In November, a judge denied a request from Bailey and Sperling to visit the four boys. A protection order issued after the two were arrested prohibits them from having contact with the children.
All four boys have been placed in the same foster home, Kimbrough said. Prosecutors have also said the boys are making significant progress.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp
