7/7/11 – A Columbus woman will spend five years on probation after pleading no contest to charges of child neglect causing bodily harm and bail jumping. The judge said 31-year-old Heidi Duesing-Christensen must also under go counseling and parent education as part of her sentence. Her attorney says the plea deal includes her admitting that she locked her five-year-old daughter in her bedroom as punishment and used a blanket tucked tightly to hold her in bed. However, the attorney says the other accusations like using cold medicine to get the girl to sleep and locking her in a closet with tape over her mouth were untrue. As part of the probation, Duesing Christensen can only have contact with the girl if her probation agent gives prior approval. Meanwhile, 38-year-old Kenneth Faria, who began living at the home in April of 2009, faces up to 28 years in prison on charges of physical abuse of a child and first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 12. The girl was sent to live with her father in Arizona last year and Faria was charged after the girl told a nurse about the alleged incidents of molestation. He has a jury trial set for November.
