Grandmother gets probation for house fire
Published 8:44 am Friday, January 19, 2018
A Clark County woman charged with setting her home on fire with her grandchildren inside was sentenced to probation.
Anita Raleigh, 57, of 2783 Kiddville Road, pleaded guilty in December to charges she set a fire in her home following an argument.
Thursday, Raleigh was sentenced in Clark Circuit Court to five years probation for two counts of wanton endangerment from the 2015 fire at her home.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed a charge of first-degree arson and the case was transferred to mental health court.
The program is designed to help those with a diagnosed mental condition to obtain help through medical care, group sessions and mentoring. If the person completes the program successfully, the charges can be dismissed.
When Raleigh pleaded guilty in Clark Circuit Court on Dec. 8, 2017, she told Judge Jean Chenault Logue she didn’t remember what happened on the day of the fire, only that she remembered waking up in the yard.
Witnesses told the deputies from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office that Raleigh got into an argument with someone else in the residence that day. They said Raleigh lit some papers and threw them on a bed. The fire then spread throughout the double-wide home.
No one in the residence at the time was injured.
The home, though, suffered heavy damage from the fire.
Raleigh’s attorney Frederick Anderson said in December that Raleigh was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disease and seizures.
Logue said previously if Raleigh completed the program in less than five years, the balance would be served as unsupervised probation.