We’ve all heard stories about people either destroying themselves or others with their drug habit. But a case in Pleasant Plain, Ohio may be one of the most outrageous instances of this I’ve ever seen. A woman fed her heroin addiction by allowing her drug dealer to rape her daughter in return for more of the white powder. Earlier this week, the bill came due for this debauchery when the woman learned she will likely spend the rest of her life in prison.
In June 2014, a man called Cincinnati police with a horrifying tale. His daughter had just told him that his ex-wife had allowed a drug dealer to molest her so the mother could get more heroin. After a yearlong investigation, the mother, April Corcoran, was arrested and charged with 27 counts of complicity in rape, complicity in gross sexual imposition, child endangerment, human trafficking and corrupting another with drugs in March 2015.
A joint investigation led by Hamilton County (Cincinnati) prosecutor Joe Deters and state attorney general Mike DeWine revealed that on several occasions from February 14 to June 6, 2014; Corcoran took her daughter from their home in Pleasant Plain, west of Cincinnati, and dropped her off at the Cincinnati apartment of heroin dealer Shandell Willingham.
For several hours, Willingham would have intercourse with the then 11-year-old girl–and even videotaped them. In return, when Corcoran came back several hours later, Willingham would give her heroin. Later, Corcoran would inject her daughter with heroin–supposedly as a “reward” for giving herself up to Willingham.
Watch a clip from the press conference announcing the indictment here, via WLWT in Cincinnati.
Deters and DeWine are fairly hardened prosecutors. But they were left shaking their heads at the thought of any parent would using their own children to help feed a drug habit. Deters called the girl’s ordeal “unimaginable,” while DeWine called it “sad beyond measure.” It is believed to be the first time that a human trafficking case has gone to trial in state court in Cincinnati.
Corcoran was jailed on $5 million bond, and initially pleaded not guilty. However, on June 9, she changed her plea to guilty to keep her daughter from having to testify. Watch more details from WCPO-TV in Cincinnati here.
At sentencing on Tuesday, Corcoran’s public defender, James Bogen, said his client had been “a very loving and attentive parent” before giving in to her drug habit. She had previously been hooked on painkillers before graduating to heroin. Earlier, Bogen had told the court that Corcoran had been trying to clean up her life before her arrest. She had gone through two rehab programs since her daughter moved out. Corcoran herself admitted to making “selfish, horrible choices” that scarred her daughter for life.
However, judge Leslie Ghiz was unmoved, and sentenced Corcoran to 51 years to life in prison. Ghiz described the case as “by far the worst thing that has come before this court,” and added that she was so horrified by the facts of the case that she had to take several breaks while reviewing them. Ghiz added that she didn’t think Corcoran knew or understood the seriousness of what she did. The girl, who is now living out of state with her father and stepmother, has had suicidal thoughts, and will likely need medication and a doctor’s care for years to come.
Ghiz’ sentiments were the same as those of the woman who prosecuted the case, Katie Pridemore. She said that it was “unfathomable” for a mother to offer up her child in return for drugs. Indeed, Pridemore found Corcoran’s behavior so outrageous that “my voice started cracking because it makes me so mad.” My girlfriend agrees. Her late husband battled a heroin habit before turning his life around. She recalled him telling her that heroin doesn’t destroy your inhibitions. Rather, it becomes so addictive that you have to keep taking more and more of it just to feel normal.
I know what some of you may be thinking. Corcoran at least had the decency to plead guilty, so wouldn’t 20 years be enough? But this woman not only offered her own child to this pervert, then shot her daughter up with heroin. And she knew exactly what she was doing. Simply put, anyone who does this can’t ever be allowed to live among us again.
Willingham himself was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2015 for unrelated drug trafficking crimes in Indiana. He has since been extradited to Cincinnati to face the same charges as Corcoran. As far as I’m concerned, these two need to spend the rest of their lives in prison, then go before the Supreme Judge for whatever punishment he thinks they deserve.
