BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
PRATTVILLE: The first appearance in an Autauga County courtroom was held for two former Journey Church Daycare workers this morning.
Leah Livingston, of Wetumpka and Alice Sorrells, of Deatsville, attended the appearance via video from the Autauga County Metro Jail.
A third suspect, Susan Baker, of Prattville, has since bonded out of jail after she turned herself in earlier this week.
Baker’s attorney of record is Brandon Stone. Livingston filed as indigent and an attorney will be provided for her by the court. Sorrells’ attorney of record is Tom Azar.
All women were ordered to have no contact with the reported 11 possible victims or the families. There were no additional charges mentioned, or changes on bond amounts which remained at a total cash bond of $55,000 for each woman. That represents $50,000 for one count of felony child abuse and $5,000 for one count of failure to report the alleged abuse as a mandatory reporter.
Their court appearance this morning comes after a press conference on Monday where Robinson and the Prattville Police Department announced the investigation, and released names of the accused. Warrants were obtained for all three of the women, and by Tuesday all were in custody.
Robinson said an potential employee interviewing as a daycare worker several weeks ago contacted church officials when she was shadowing other workers. She reported concerns to church officials related to the care of the children, all of which are under two-years-of age.
This led to church officials contacting the Prattville Police Department, and video surveillance recordings reviewed and taken as evidence. Those videos date back to February, according to Chief Assistant District Attorney CJ Robinson.
“We called a press conference to announce the results of an investigation that is still ongoing,” said Robinson on Monday. “We’ve reached the point of this investigation where we feel that we need to try to communicate to the public what is going on. This has been a very emotional case so far and I know there are many families involved.”
According to Robinson, the video evidence was “horrific” and showed the children shoved and struck multiple times.
This case will go before a special Autauga Grand Jury, to see if there is enough evidence to set trial dates for the women accused.
Robinson said he feels very confident in the evidence and foresees more charges coming in the future as the investigation proceeds and is presented to the Grand Jury.
