Child abuse, abandonment
A Pulaski woman is facing felony charges after allegedly abandoning her 10-year-old son along a highway in Krakow on Thursday.
Bonnie A. Gauthier, 40, is charged with attempted physical abuse of a child, mental harm to a child and child abandonment, along with a misdemeanor count of child neglect.
The criminal complaint alleges Gauthier told the child to get out of her vehicle at the state Highway 32 gas station shortly before 9:30 a.m. and drove off. The complaint alleges she also threw a lunchbox at him out of the window as he ran after the car.
A clerk at the gas station contacted Fairview Elementary School, and school staff eventually picked him up. According to the complaint, the temperature when the child was left was one degree above zero.
Gauthier could face a maximum possible penalty of 12 1/2 years in prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted of mental harm to a child, 10 years and a $25,000 fine for child abandonment, and 3 years and a $5,000 fine for attempted physical abuse.
Gauthier was freed on a $1,000 signature bond after a court appearance Friday. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 27.
Sexual assault of a child
A Schofield man is due in court for a preliminary hearing Monday on charges of sexually assaulting a child and other related felony counts.
Patrick C. McNeely, 46, is accused of repeated sexual assault of a 3-year-old boy, child enticement, exposing genitalia to a child, and reckless endangerment for allegedly having sexual contact with the child while suffering from a sexually transmitted disease.
According to the criminal complaint, McNeely had genital warts and Hepatitis C.
The alleged assaults took place in Bowler between October and December.
McNeely could face a maximum 60 years in prison for repeated sexual assault of a child, 25 years in prison and a $100,000 fine for child enticement, 10 years and a $25,000 fine for second degree reckless endangerment, and 3 1/2 years and a $10,000 fine for exposing his genitals to a child.
McNeely is being held on a $20,000 cash bond.