WARREN COUNTY — Prosecutors in Warren County are asking a judge to not seal the conviction of a woman previously convicted abusing her baby’s corpse.
An attorney for Brooke Skylar Richardson, 23, filed motion to seal her 2019 conviction in Warren County Common Pleas court Aug. 12. The filing came 19 months after Judge Donald Oda II granted a request to terminate Richardson’s probation early.
Prosecutors filed an opposition to Richardson’s motion Sept. 1. News Center 7 obtained a copy of that filing Tuesday. In it, prosecutors argue that “sealing the records and conviction of the case would diminish the seriousness of her offense.”
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Brooke Skylar Richardson requests court to seal 2019 conviction
Richardson was convicted of gross abuse of a corpse after she had her baby in secret and buried her in the backyard of her Carlisle home in May 2017. She served 14 months of the three-year probation sentence.
Prosecutors stated that if it weren’t for law enforcement finding the skeletal remains of the baby girl from Richardson’s backyard, “no one would have even known this child ever existed.”
“Rather, [Richardson] intended to carry on with her life as if nothing occurred, with no consequences or accountability for her treatment of the child’s remains,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Steven Knippen stated in the motion asking the court to deny her request.
She was acquitted on charges of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangering, and the Warren County prosecutor said that was most likely because the prosecution couldn’t produce a cause of death of the baby, News Center 7 previously reported.
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Judge grants early end to probation for Brooke Skylar Richardson
At the hearing to end her probation, Oda said he was aware of the perception in the case, but said the reality was Richardson was convicted of a low-level felony and had no prior record. He said there had never been any issues with Richardson since her sentencing or before her trial.
Richardson told the court she wanted “to be a normal person again.” She also said she’d been working on her mental health and wanted to be able to go to college and eventually become a public defender to continue in society.
A hearing to determine if Richardson’s motion to seal will be approved or denied has been scheduled for Sept. 27 at 10:30 a.m. in Oda’s courtroom, according to Warren County Common Pleas Court records.
We’ll update this as we learn more.
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