The senior pastor at First United Methodist Church turned herself in at the Christian County Jail Monday morning and was arrested on a Christian Circuit Court Indictment warrant in connection to the January child abuse case. On Friday, the Christian County Grand Jury indicted 61-year old Reverend Paige Williams of Hopkinsville, along with former daycare director 32-year old Abby Leach of Hopkinsville, for first-degree complicity to criminal abuse of a child under 12-years of age.
According to the indictments, Williams and Leach are accused of failing to prevent a former daycare employee, Allison Simpson from “intentionally abusing the children, which might have caused serious physical injury, torture, cruel confinement or cruel punishment.”
Simpson is scheduled to be back in court later this month for a pretrial conference after she was indicted by the grand jury in April on two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and second-degree criminal abuse of a child under 12-years of age. An arrest warrant filed by Hopkinsville Police says Simpson allegedly subjected an 8-month old and a 10-month old to cruel care and confinement on January 10 of this year at the First United Methodist Church daycare.
Leach turned herself in at the jail within hours of being indicted Friday and was released after posting bond. Williams was released following her arrest Monday morning after she also posted bond.
