Foster Parent, Boyfriend Admit Molesting Child

The operator of a state-licensed foster home and her boyfriend have pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree child molestation involving an 8-year-old girl in the woman’s care.

Rhonda Lynette Bond, 29, and Thomas Leroy Wakefield, 33, pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as part of a plea bargain made shortly before they were scheduled to go on trial Monday on charges of child rape.

Bond and Wakefield told Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge James Warme they were using methamphetamine when, on one occasion, they invited the girl into their bed to satisfy her sexual curiosity.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Mahre said evidence presented at trial would have shown that “a lot more happened” than the single incident which Bond and Wakefield admitted.

Mahre said the girl was sexually abused five times between November 1995 and August 1996.

Mahre said prosecutors approved the plea bargain because they wanted to spare the child the emotional trauma of having to testify.

Bond and Wakefield could have been sentenced to 10 or more years in prison if convicted on the original child-rape charges. Now, they face a standard sentencing range of five to seven years.

They are to be sentenced Jan. 23.

Bond was licensed as a foster parent in 1995 despite five misdemeanor convictions between 1992 and 1994 for shoplifting, resisting arrest, obstructing an officer, having physical control of a motor vehicle while intoxicated and having no valid driver’s license.