A West Virginia man has avoided jail time after being indicted for raping his 11-year-old daughter, impregnating her at age 12, and arranging for the young girl to have an abortion.
“The indictment charged Michael Joe Adkins with incest, first-degree sexual assault and sexual abuse by a parent for alleged intercourse with his daughter, which impregnated the girl as the sexual activity continued after she became 12,” reports Life News. “He and the girl’s stepmother, Amanda Rea Adkins, also faced counts of child neglect creating risk of injury and conspiracy as part of an abortion and subsequent procedure aimed at covering up the alleged incest.”
The alleged assaults on the 11-year-old first began in October 2010. The girl was taken to have her unborn child, allegedly conceived from rape by her father, killed at an abortion clinic in March 2011.
According to The Herald-Dispatch, Adkins has avoided jail time but has been placed on probation:
Cabell Circuit Judge Paul T. Farrell, honoring a plea deal reached between assistant prosecutor Kellie Neal and defense attorney Connor Robertson, placed Michael Joe Adkins, of Ona, on five years’ probation and 50 years of supervision after his probation is completed. …
Adkins had entered a Kennedy plea in September 2015 to incest with a young girl. A Kennedy plea allows a conviction without the defendant admitting guilt or explaining his role in a crime. He will also have to register as a sex offender and take specialized classes and therapy as part of the deal.
While Robertson argued against the additional 50 years of supervision, which will start after Adkins’ probation period, Farrell insisted on the maximum allowed by statute.
“I’m just going to be blunt: I hope you screw up during those 50 years so I can send you to prison,” said Judge Farrell. “If you violate any of the terms and conditions in the next 50 years, then the court can send you to prison — and I’m hoping that’s the case, because you should go to prison for what you did.”
According to Life News, the case of statutory rape was not reported by the abortion clinic that performed the D&C (dilation and curettage) on the 12-year-old, though “some licensed medical professionals were involved in getting information to authorities.”
“That point was withheld, which makes it pertinent in her health and her safety,” said West Virginia State Police Cpl. Marlene Moore. “That’s where the neglect creating risk of injury comes in. The parents neglected to take care of her needs — her basic needs and put her in extreme danger by letting her go through an unnecessary procedure — be put under anesthesia when they knew that that had been performed before.”