Damascus resident Lora Loethen has been convicted on one count of second-degree child abuse and five counts of child neglect. Loethen entered a guilty plea on Thursday in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County before the honorable Theresa Chernosky.
Loethen, 55, faces up to four years in prison and has terminated her parental rights to the six minor victims. As a condition of probation, Loethen will not be permitted to have any contact with the minor victims or any unsupervised contact with other minors. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 5.
This stems from an incident on March 21, 2023, when one of Loethen’s adopted daughters confided in another adult that she had been repeatedly hit in the face by the defendant. There was a lengthy history of complaints and evidence of neglect of the defendant’s other five adopted children. Between August 2021 and March 2023, police had been dispatched to incidents involving the family 65 times and had written more than 30 reports. Most of the reports were in regard to children having run away from the home.
“Every child in this community deserves our protection. The defendant sought to become the most trusted caretaker for these six children, yet she violated that trust, abusing vulnerable victims. We are relieved that the children will not have to suffer any further trauma by participating in a trial,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy.
Assistant State’s Attorneys Brian Rubinstein and Lauren Fetsch are prosecuting the case.
