It also followed a sentencing by Watkins McLaughlin, in division 21, of former University City day care teacher Carmen Hunter after a jury found her guilty of molesting a 4-year-old boy more than a decade ago. The jury recommended a six-year prison term. The judge sentenced her to a six-year prison term but suspended it and placed Hunter in a 120-day sex offender treatment program. The program gives the judge discretion to keep Hunter in prison for the full six years or release her based on an evaluation from the Missouri Department of Corrections.

In another recent case, Watkins McLaughlin gave Jennifer Stege of Pacific a 90-day, in-custody drug treatment program and probation. Stege, a former certified nursing assistant, admitted forcing her way into the South County home of a couple in their late 70s whom she had previously cared for, and taking prescription painkillers that belonged to one of the victims, a paraplegic.