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 Lorinda Bailey, 36, and her common-law husband, Wayne Sperling,
67, were charged last year with multiple counts of child abuse after
police found the boys aged 2, 4, 5, and 6 living in an apartment
littered with cat waste and swarming with flies.
Bailey pleaded guilty in August to one count of felony child abuse.
In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors dropped six other child
abuse counts against her.
Prosecutors had sought a seven-year prison sentence for Bailey, but
the judge imposed a lighter jail term and ordered her to attend
mental health and peer mentoring programs, said Lynn Kimbrough,
spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney's Office.
Bailey also was ordered to have no contact with her sons, who now
live in a foster home.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Denver police,
authorities were alerted to the situation after Bailey took the
2-year-old to an emergency room for treatment of a head laceration.
The attending physician noted that the toddler was filthy, reeked of
cigarette smoke, and was "non-verbal," the affidavit said.
Police then went to the couple's apartment on a welfare check and
found Sperling there with his three older sons. The boys were not
toilet trained and made "infant-like noises," the affidavit said.
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"Sperling stated the children have their own language and grunt at
each other but were able to speak to him and Bailey," the affidavit
said.
Sperling is set for a disposition hearing next week, Kimbrough said.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric
Beech)
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