VERNAL — A Vernal mother has pleaded guilty to child abuse after her daughter was allegedly raped by four men while the woman was doing drugs.
In a plea deal, the mother admitted Oct. 18 to a class A misdemeanor charge of child abuse, reduced from a third-degree felony. The Deseret News has chosen not to identify the woman to protect the identity of the child.
The mother was sentenced to 120 days in jail, with credit given for time served. She was ordered to complete 24 months of probation after her release.
According to police, on Easter weekend the woman took her daughter to a Vernal home where she used drugs with people she had met while in the Uintah County Jail. While she was in another room, the 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by at least three men, court documents state.
Larson Rondeau, 37, Jerry Flatlip, 30, and Randall Flatlip, 26, were ordered to stand trial on charges of rape of a child and sodomy on a child, first-degree felonies, in July. Charges against a fourth man, Josiah Rondeau, 20, were dismissed at a preliminary hearing because the girl's mother, a material witness, couldn't be located.
After seeing her daughter was upset and taking her home, the woman told police she continued to hallucinate from the drugs for three days. At the end of the three days, the girl described the assault to her mother, who contacted police.
— McKenzie Romero