mother gets prison for not reporting child abuse
Wilmington mom to serve prison time
May 15, 2007
By STEWART WARREN STAFF WRITER
JOLIET -- A judge sentenced a Wilmington mother to more than five years in prison Monday morning for taking $10,000 in hush money from a man who raped her disabled teenage daughter.
Kimberly A. Riordan, 33, of 349 N. First St., was arrested in January 2006 and charged with neglect of a disabled person, obstructing justice and concealing a fugitive. Riordan took the cash from Lawrence Southwood, a family friend and convicted sex offender who had been baby-sitting her daughter, a teen who has cerebral palsy, is paralyzed and needs around-the-clock care. He bribed Riordan so she wouldn't report the crimes to police.
On Dec. 25, 2005, Southwood, now 69, also of Wilmington, was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. A jury found him guilty of the crimes in August. Will County Judge Dan Rozak sentenced Southwood to 104 years in prison in October.
Riordan pleaded guilty in March to obstructing justice and concealing a fugitive.
"Her decision to take $10,000 to look the other way was an act of unconscionable greed and betrayal like I have never seen during my 28 years in the criminal justice system," Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow said Monday.
Riordan appeared in Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak's courtroom Monday to be sentenced. By law, she was eligible for as many as six years in prison.
Riordan was willing to look the other way -- for a price, said Will County Assistant State's Attorney Lea Norbut, criminal division chief. Then Norbut asked what the betrayal of a mother was worth.
"In a word, prison," Norbut said Monday.
Several people, including a representative from Catholic Charities, spoke on Riordan's behalf and called her a good mother. Riordan also spoke briefly, apologizing to the court and to her three children. The judge then sentenced her to 65 months in prison.
