Woman to Plead to Reduced Rape Charge
Originally published by The Associated Press, May 9, 2002
LANSING, Mich. — A woman who police say tried to kill herself with the help of her mother-in-law after she and her husband were accused of rape agreed to plead no contest to a reduced charge.
Prosecutors said Jennifer Holey will plead no contest to third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Accused of raping a 14-year-old girl, she had been charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and could have been sentenced to life in prison.
A no-contest plea means Holey neither admits nor denies guilt.
"Based on the evidence, we didn't want to pursue this," said Holey's lawyer, Eric Tomal.
Police say Jennifer and Patrick Holey, both 19, raped the girl April 1. One week later, state child protection workers took the couple's 8-month-old daughter.
Jennifer Holey, who is pregnant with her second child, survived an overdose of a painkiller that killed her husband.
Holey's mother-in-law, Kathleen Holey, faces two charges of assisted suicide for allegedly providing the prescription painkiller fentanyl to the couple April 9 and driving them to a rural area to let them kill themselves. Kathleen Holey had the prescription to treat chronic pain from a head injury.
If Kathleen Holey is convicted, she would be the first person penalized under Michigan's assisted suicide law, which was passed in 1998 to stop Dr. Jack Kevorkian from helping terminally ill people kill themselves. Kevorkian himself was eventually convicted of another charge, second-degree murder, in the death of a Lou Gehrig's disease patient.
Dunnings said prosecutors offered the reduced charge to Jennifer Holey in part to spare the victim from a trial.
"When you have sex cases involving children, we have a lot more to consider than in other cases," Dunnings said.
Officials said she will be sentenced within the next two months.
