Church daycare child abuse suspects won’t be tried together

The four suspects charged in connection with alleged child abuse at the First United Methodist Church Daycare will not be tried at the same time.

Judge John Atkins made the ruling Monday morning, saying former daycare workers Abby Leach and Nina Morgan will be tried first beginning Monday morning of next week.

The judge notes the alleged roles in abuse at the day care by Simpson and Morgan are in direct contact with the victims, while the allegations against former Pastor Paige Williams and day care director Abby Leach were that they ignored reports of abuse while in a supervisory role.

Ultimately, Judge Atkins says there needed to be two trials due to the circumstances of the case.

Judge Atkins denied a recent motion filed by defense attorney Bill Deatherage to dismiss the case and said every effort will be made to keep the names of the victims confidential, unless their parents and the commonwealth decide to name them during the trial.

Indictments against Leach and Williams allege they “breached their legal duty to protect the minor children by failing to prevent Simpson and Morgan from intentionally abusing children.” In each count, the victim is described as being under the age of 13 months old.

Simpson is indicted on 30 counts of criminal child abuse. All 30 counts are alleged to have happened between December 19 of 2018 and January 18 of 2019. Eleven of the counts are against the same infant and a total of eight children are listed as victims in all of the allegations.

Nina Morgan is indicted for two counts of criminal child abuse.