An Illinois woman was back on the streets after being jailed for allegedly assaulting a 6-year-old child in December.
As a condition of her release from the Ogle County Jail, Martha Dunham, 36, was directed by a judge to avoid minors under the age of 18.
On December 13, Dunham was arrested under domestic battery and felony charges of aggravated battery of a child under 13.
She was released from jail and slapped with a protective order during a court appearance on January 9.
Court records gleaned from local news source Shaw Local indicate that Dunham was accused of pulling the child’s hair and headbutting her.
Neither the relationship between Dunham and the child nor his relationship with the mother, who sought for a protective order against Dunham, were revealed.
Records said the claimed assaults were “physical contact of an insulting or motivating nature.”
On December 23, Dunham showed up for court and entered a not guilty plea to the accusations leveled against her. On January 7, a hearing on the protective order the mother of the claimed victim filed following the December incident took place.
The mother sought a two-year extension of the order, but when asked by Ogle County Judge Russell Crull if she would consent to the order, Dunham asked, “Can we do it until my criminal case is settled?”
Crull stretched the order through January 28. Then he withdrew himself from all more activities claiming a conflict of interest; he apparently represented the mother of the child as a private defense attorney.
On January 9, another listening took place before Anthony Peska, a new judge.
Although prosecutors apparently asked that Dunham remain behind bars because of her past domestic violence charges, which date back to 2006, Peska ordered that she be released under the proviso that she not interact with any children under the age of eighteen.
On January 28, she will return in court for still another hearing on the protection order.
March 18 marks Dunham’s next court visit for her criminal charges.
