By SYDNEY KENT
A woman from Bluffton was sentenced to five years in prison after she failed to protect two children from repeated sexual abuse.
Sarah Haler, 41, pled guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent, both Level 6 felonies.
Haler was sentenced above the advisory for the charge — 2.5 years for each count, ordered to be served consecutively.
Two counts of assisting a criminal, both Level 5 felonies, were dismissed as part of a plea agreement with the state. The deal limited Haler’s prison time to five or fewer years.
During Haler’s hearing last Wednesday, Prosecutor Colin Andrews explained the reason for the plea deal. Andrews said the state lacked the requisite factual background to pursue the charges into trial. He advised that despite this, both victims were acknowledged in the plea deal.
“I’ll say it again, I wish I could have done more,” Andrews emphasized. “It’s absolutely horrible what has happened (to) these children. As we speak today, I believe they are safe and with their father.”
According to a probable cause affidavit, the charges were filed in September last year after two children reported a series of repeated sexual abuse at the hands of Haler’s boyfriend, Joshua Huffman, 42, Montpelier. The children told police that they had reported the abuse to Haler, and that she did nothing to protect them.
Both children also reported that Huffman would threaten them if they did not comply, and that he made them believe Haler owed him money.
During a lie detector test on Sept. 11, Haler reportedly showed deception when asked if she knew that Huffman was molesting the children before they disclosed it to her. After the test, Haler told investigators that she knew she should have left Huffman when the abuse was reported.
“I contemplated reading to you (the) children’s statements of what they told police,” Judge Kenton Kiracofe said. “I want to make clear your crime here and the punishment you’re going to receive was not because the children were molested in your household or under your care. The crime is they told you, and you did nothing.”
“I never meant for (them) to be in that situation,” Haler tearfully said during her statement to the court. “I honestly don’t know why I didn’t do anything at that point in time, I should have. I don’t know if I was scared or what was going on or my anxiety … I don’t know what else to say other than I am sorry. It eats me up.”
“They had to wake up every day in the same household as this person,” Kiracofe continued. “The next time they got molested by him, and the next time, and the next time, they had to know that you knew — and you didn’t stop it. The victimization that happened to them was awful … You were the one person in their lives that could have stopped this and you didn’t.”
Because the abuse was alleged to occur in multiple locations, both Haler and Huffman face similar charges in Blackford County.
In Wells County, Huffman was charged with two counts of child molesting, both Level 1 felonies, two counts of child molesting, both Level 4 felonies, one count of child exploitation and one count of possession of child pornography, both Level 5 felonies.
In Blackford County, Huffman was charged with two counts of child molesting, both Level 1 felonies, and two counts of child molesting, both Level 4 felonies.
Haler is scheduled for a pretrial conference at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 in the Blackford Circuit Court.
Huffman is scheduled for a three-day trial in the matter beginning at 9 a.m. on Oct. 15 in the Wells Circuit Court.
sydney@news-banner.com
