Woman who encouraged 14-year-old daughter to have sex gets probation

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Updated: March 16, 2012 8:13AM

VALPARAISO — She knew her 14-year-old daughter smoked cigarettes and marijuana, and she encouraged a mentally challenged 19-year-old to have a sexual relationship with the daughter.

For that, Amy Sliwinski, 37, received a two-year sentence to probation on Tuesday, minus the two days she spent in Porter County Jail when first arrested for Class D felony neglect of a dependent.

Sliwinski’s sentencing includes enrollment at Porter-Starke Services for counseling.

Judge Mary Harper noted during sentencing that Sliwinski’s history of mental health problems counted as a mitigating factor. Sliwinski could have gotten up to three years in prison had she gone to trial instead of entering a plea bargain on the neglect charge.

However, her daughter still lives with her, and the Children in Need of Services case was dismissed a month after it was filed, her attorney, Matthew Soliday, said.

She went through 23 weeks of parenting classes through the Youth Services Bureau, Soliday said.

Authorities became aware of the situation in early 2011, after Sliwinski called police on Robert Earl Holmes, now 20, accusing him of stealing a compact disc and a cellphone charger.

Holmes had been homeless but was living in Sliwinski’s home after the daughter met him through the person she was dating and convinced her mother to let him stay there.

Around Thanksgiving 2010, Sliwinski suggested to Holmes that he start a sexual relationship with the daughter.

She told him it wouldn’t be statutory rape because she, as the parent, had given approval, and she preferred having her involved with him in the safety of the home compared to the guys her daughter had sex with.

Sliwinski also told Holmes she just didn’t want to hear about it, according to court records.

Holmes had been sentenced on June 21 to a year in Porter County Jail for his plea to misdemeanor battery.

The original charge, Class C felony sexual misconduct, could have meant up to eight years in prison and a requirement to register as a sexual offender.

As part of his plea, Holmes was expected to testify against Sliwinski if the case went to trial.

However, his mental capacity and the fact that he’d stopped taking medication for a bipolar disorder caused concern for Judge Harper during his sentencing.

“He is somewhat lacking in maturity, and although he was 19, he wasn’t quite that mature,” defense attorney Larry Rogers said.

Rogers added that Sliwinski took advantage of Holmes’s mental capacity in non-sexual ways.