LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Clearlake woman has been found guilty of elder abuse as the result of a physical fight that occurred last December.
Katie Ann Key was found guilty of felony elder abuse likely to cause great bodily injury, and additional charges of elder abuse and dependent adult abuse for allegedly assaulting Christina Warrington of Clearlake on Dec. 1, 2011.
At the time of the incident, Key was 19 and Warrington was 46, according to the original incident reports.
Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson said the guilty verdict was handed down on Friday, July 20, at the end of a trial that ran about three days.
Key is to be sentenced on Wednesday, Aug. 22, according to her attorney, Tom Quinn.
Quinn said he will ask the court to reduce the principal felony elder abuse charge to a misdemeanor at sentencing, as he asserted her conduct did not pose a danger of great bodily injury to Warrington.
He said Key – a young mother with no criminal record – regrets the incident and has taken responsibility for it, but said it was a mutual fight.
Quinn also said Key was not Warrington’s caregiver, as had originally been reported, although she had helped Warrington out occasionally. He said Warrington conceded that on the stand.
Police had reported at the time of the incident that Key and Warrington got into a fight on the side of the road of Old Highway 53 near Highway 53, not far from the trailer park where they both lived.
If the charge remains a felony, Abelson said Key could face up to four years in prison.
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