In March 2023, former First United Methodist Church pastor Paige Williams was found guilty on eight counts of third-degree criminal abuse, victims 12 years of age or less, and fined $500 for the offenses.
Friday morning, Kentucky’s Court of Appeals reversed the decision — clearing Williams of the crime.
In its nine-page ruling, the KCA cited 1998’s Davis v. Commonwealth and 2014’s Staples v. Commonwealth as key chapters defining “actual custody” of children — which has no major description in state statute or common law.
However, the Kentucky Supreme Court has since tendered that while “the legislature presumably did not intend to extend criminal liability to every person having temporary care or charge of a child,” the state’s top law interpreter has no difficulty discerning an intent to include persons…who reside within the same household and stand “in loco parentis” to the child.
As such, the KCA stated there was “uncontroverted evidence” indicating Williams never exercised direct care or direct control over the children of First United Methodist Church. She did not work within the confines of the daycare, was not involved in the caretaking aspect of the children on a daily basis, and therefore, never had actual custody of the abused children.
For more than a year, Williams had been contending that Christian County Circuit Court had erred in denying her a motion for directed verdict of acquittal, because she never had that “actual custody.” She also reaffirmed she never observed any abusive conduct, and was not a supervisor of former daycare director Abby Leach — who was also convicted in this case.
