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	Woman Guilty of Enabling Sex Abuse By Donna Hales Muskogee Phoenix April 14, 2008 http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/local_story_105230027.html A Warner woman received a 10-year suspended sentence Monday for enabling the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old child. Sherry LaBounty earlier told a judge she did not report her husband for sexually abusing the child and allowed him to be around the victim, who he again abused. During sentencing Monday she blamed her failure to report sexual abuse on her upbringing and her relationship with her church. Muskogee County Assistant District Attorney Nikki Baker Dotson argued the sexual abuse was reported by a church member, so LaBounty couldn't blame the church for her not reporting it. Frank Anderson, interim pastor of the Church of Lord Jesus Christ at Mountain Grove, off Coffee Road between Warner and Webbers Falls, said only one church elder knew of the abuse and advised LaBounty. Anderson said other church members learned of the abuse after Charles James "Chuck" LaBounty, 48, was arrested in September and charged with five counts of lewd molestation and three counts of rape by instrumentation. Chuck LaBounty earlier received three concurrent 20-year suspended sentences. Sherry LaBounty told District Judge Tom Alford putting her in prison would "only serve to devastate my family. According to my therapist, I am a more than competent mother." LaBounty was seeking a deferred sentence so she could keep her teaching certificate. Dotson argued she was not using her teaching certificate and had quit teaching to homeschool her children, who are presently back in public school. But Alford was unmoved. "I just don't buy it — I can't reconcile it," Alford told LaBounty, speaking of her college education and using her church as an excuse for not reporting her husband. "On the other hand, you make a very good point the harm has already been done ..." Several hours after the sentence was pronounced, a woman identifying herself as Sherry LaBounty's twin sister, Terry Estes, said she did not believe the sentence was fair to Sherry LaBounty or her children. She said her sister might later need her teaching certificate to make a decent living for the children. Sherry LaBounty has filed a divorce action against her husband, who is employed and provides support. "I know my sister's heart and how much she tried to do what was best and what was right — other people don't know the whole situation," Estes said.
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