A former assistant principal in Madison County was indicted on nine charges this week, including sex abuse of a minor.

Police say 43 -year-old Joy Hayes was employed by Madison Southern High School and that she subjected a 15-year-old girl to sexual contact.

Hayes was also indicted on fourth degree assault charges for hitting the girl and causing injuries.

Court documents also reveal she gave prescription drugs and alcohol to the girl and persuaded her to disobey her parents.

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Richmond police stopped Joy Hayes’ car on Motel Road in October when they found out the female in the passenger seat was a former student whose parents had recently pressed sexual abuse charges against Hayes for an alleged incident that occurred after she resigned from the school in January.

According to a criminal complaint, Hayes repeatedly kissed the student, fondled and touched her inappropriately. On another occasion, Hayes is accused of grabbing the girl’s ear and pulling her to the ground.

Police say this student was the second one to come forward to report that they’d been harassed by Hayes.

A Madison County couple has been indicted on child abuse charges accused of torturing the man’s daughter.

Court documents say Julio Valladares and Linda Richmond tortured his 9-year-old daughter for months dating back to December 2013.

According to the indictment, the couple tried to break the 9-year-old by physically and mentally abusing her, including forcing the child to stand in a cold shower for 20 minutes at a time, what the couple described as “showers on the hour.”

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LEX 18 first reported in October on accusations of how the couple limited the child’s amount of food and confined her to a chair several hours a day to punish her for wetting the bed.

The indictment has more graphic details, including how the couple allegedly beat the girl with a leather belt, including during or after the cold showers.

The couple is also accused of starving the girl, spraying sores with rubbing alcohol, making her lie on a soiled bed and forcing her to hide and remain alone in a vehicle.

Both Valladares and Richmond have been in jail since they were arrested in October.

A second arrest has been made in a criminal abuse case involving a child in Clay County.

State police say 26-year-old Phillip J. Thompson of Manchester was arrested in London around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday and charged in connection to the alleged abuse of a 4-year-old child who was airlifted to UK Hospital Monday morning.

Thompson is charged with criminal abuse first degree – child under 12 years of age.

22-year-old Amber O. Willoughby, also of Manchester, was arrested Monday and charged with criminal abuse first degree.

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Police say Thompson is Willoughby’s boyfriend.

The child was flown from the Manchester Memorial Hospital to the University of Kentucky Medical Center for treatment of the injuries sustained. The child remained in the hospital as of Tuesday morning with multiple injuries, police said, but the child’s condition was not clear.

Both suspects are being held in the Clay County Detention Center.

State police say the investigation is ongoing.

Police have released surveillance photos of the man they say robbed a bank in Nelson County.

It happened last Monday at Lincoln Bank in Bardstown.

Police tell LEX 18 that the man in the photo is 61-year-old Ronald Newberry.

Police tell LEX 18 they responded to the call of the alarm going off at a business when they arrived on scene, they found Newberry inside the bank hiding under a Christmas tree. Police say it appears that Newberry tried to cut power to the bank, luckily the bank has a backup system. In the surveillance video, you can see the man walk up to a glass door with a gun drawn then force the door open after shooting out the glass.

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Investigators found a handgun, silver bars and coins in a duffel bag that Newberry was carrying. According to police, Newberry claims he was just trying to conduct banking business. Once inside, he can be seen walking nervously behind the desks as though he’s searching for something.

“He stated to officers he was there to trade coins for cash him and his friend although there was no one else with him at the time. He was taken into custody and charged with one count of burglary first degree,” says Captain Tom Roby of the Bardstown Police.

While searching Newberry’s car, police discovered what appeared to be AK-47 magazines.

The police and bank officials are just glad that the search ended safely.

Newberry is charged with burglary.

There are a lot of questions in Jessamine County after human remains were found near the Kentucky River. Part of a body washed up near Camp Daniel Boone Road, near the Fayette and Madison County lines on Saturday.

The Coroner said only the torso of the body was found, and they said that is likely the result of a homicide.

“It was horrible, yeah it really was,” said George Hall. He has lived on the Kentucky River all his life, and thought he had seen everything.

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“I never would have thought that would happen. I figured I would probably find dead people in the water, but not like that.”

This body isn’t his first morbid encounter. Hall said while fishing or walking the banks he’s found three other bodies over the last 50 years. Still, finding only the torso of a body was a first.

“I walked right up on a body laying there,” said Hall. “Checked closer and it was a body, with no head, no legs, no arms.”

Hall told family and friends who called 911. Then, the Jessamine County Sheriff’s Department and the Jessamine County Coroner came to the scene.

“We weren’t even able to determine the sex of the body or the age. So it’s a very difficult thing when you don’t have the entire body there,” said Coroner Michael Hughes.

“Kind of an unsettling kind of find, this is something… these type of remains we don’t find a lot of,” said Sgt. Anthony Purcell, with the Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators spent hours looking for the rest of the body, but did not find anything. They said the torso has been in the water for a matter of months, and likely came from somewhere else.

“We have to presume that this wasn’t an accident,” said Hughes.

The Jessamine County Sheriff’s Department is asking for help in this case. If you have a friend or family member who has gone missing within in the last year, please give them a call.

Somewhere this person is being missed, now investigators need help finding who it is, and who took their life. “I hope they catch him, and I pray that they do,” said Hall.

The Coroner said the remains are now in Frankfort with the Medical Examiner. They are attempting to use DNA to identify the body.

The roommate of a Georgetown man charged with sexually abusing two kids says it isn’t true.

We first told you about Jeffrey Carr on LEX 18 News at 6. He’s charged with sexual abuse of two young girls. He says if it happened he has no recollection of it because he may have been sleepwalking.

Geoff Kronberg reached out to LEX 18 after hearing about the charges.

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“This never happened. Never would happen. It didn’t happen,” said Kronberg.

Georgetown police say two girls younger than 12 were abused five different times.

Carr, a 39-year old father, told police he doesn’t remember doing anything to them, but if he did, he may have been sleepwalking.

Kronberg lives with Carr and his family and refuses to believe the accusations.

“He doesn’t sleep walk. I’ve lived with him for years. Never once witnessed it, ever. He’s lived with me, I’ve lived with him, never has he sleepwalked,” said Kronberg.

Instead, he believes police coerced the confession out of Carr.

“He went to the detective on his own. He went in willingly and talked to them and they were trying to get him to confess right there,” said Kronberg, who says police never contacted him about the allegations.

“The investigation wasn’t very thorough. I’m living there, I’m an adult on premises. No one’s contacting me. No one cares to contact me,” said Kronberg.

With his friend and roommate charged with first-degree sexual abuse, he says he just wants Carr to have his day in court.

“He hasn’t been proven guilty. This is America. Innocent until proven guilty and right now it feels like the other way around,” said Kronberg.

Carr was booked in the Scott county jail last week, but has since bonded out.

State police are stepping in to help the family of a Carter County man who seemingly disappeared last week.

It’s been a week since anyone has seen or heard from 30-year-old Clifton Sigman, who was last seen leaving his mother’s home on Stump Run Road on Dec. 1 around 11 p.m.

He was wearing blue jeans, work boots and a blue hoodie with a black and gray hat.

Friends and family say he never missed a day of work and if he was running late, he’d always call.

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People are searching on four wheelers, but so far have no seen any sign of him. Friends and family are worried.

“It is completely out of character for him not calling work or calling out for work or me,” said his mother, Sabrina Sigman. “It is just not right. He likes his job and I can’t see him not going to work.”

On Tuesday, a massive ground search is planned to search the hills and woods all around the double a highway in Carter County.

Jessamine County Sheriff’s officials are investigating a death after human remains were found Saturday.

The coroner was called to the scene near the Kentucky River on Camp Daniel Boone after the body was found by a man fishing. The remains were found where Fayette, Madison and Jessamine Counties meet. Jessamine County is currently the only agency investigating.

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The remains were identified as being human. Officials say that the torso washed up on the banks of the river. The heads, arm, and legs were missing and police are not sure if the body is male or female. The coroner tells LEX 18 that he believes the remains were in the water for some time.

The remains have been transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort for further identification.

Police do believe this was a homicide.

A friend of the fisherman who discovered the body found tells LEX 18 that his friend initially thought the torso was something else.

“All of the sudden he looked down there and he thought it was a deer, a part of a deer and seen it was you know, a torso. You know, part of a body,” says Sam Dennis.

The trial of a Knott County man accused of shooting at several probation and parole officers began for the accused.

It’s not a question of whether Rocky Wicker Sr. shot Officer Brian Melvin. The defense admits he did but, they maintain, the real question is who shot first.

Claiming self-defense, Wicker’s attorney says that he was ambushed by four state probation and parole officers who showed up at his Mousie home back in September 2013. During today’s opening remarks, the defense claimed that the officers fired first and never identified themselves, forcing Wicker to shoot back.

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The prosecution denied that same claim, saying officer Melvin and the other officers were in a marked vehicle and let Wicker know they were looking for his son to serve a warrant. The prosecutor says Wicker saw the officers, so he went instead to get two weapons to fire at the officers. He hit Officer Melvin in the heart of his bullet proof vest. Melvin suffered a gunshot wound to his arm.

The prosecution claims that Wicker intended to murder the officers

The trial is expected to last through Wednesday.

A Boyle County woman is accused of stealing more than $75,000 from an elderly man, but a plea deal will keep her out of jail for now.

The Advocate Messenger reports Cheryl Reed Tipton struck a deal with prosecutors to go through a pre-trial diversion program and repay $30,000 instead of going to prison for five years.

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The Commonwealth’s Attorney tells the paper Tipton was working as a caretaker for Jerome Smith when she took thousands from him in 2011.

Tipton’s attorney told the paper this stems from a misinterpretation of how she would be paid for taking care of Smith.