Keep it close to home.......

"It's not a good situation all around," stated Sgt Dave Lewis.








Chalena Mae Moody, 25, met Eric Lee Gates, 49 through a mutual friend when he was serving time in prison.  They became pen pals and after he was released, they continued the friendship.  At the time, neither knew that they were related but they did discover that fact a few years ago.  They discovered that Gates was Moody's biological father but he had never known because he hadn't been her custodial father.

Instead of just trying to turn their friendship into a father daughter relationship, they chose to become lovers.  Moody had been married before and had three children already but did not have custody of any of them.  It has been reported that they had all been adopted.  The couple had been living in Springfield OR where the police learned that they were living as a couple and in 2013, had produced a child.  They moved then to Klamath Falls OR and had another child in the summer of 2014.  Both of the children had been born with severe mental and physical handicaps and were taken into state custody.

On January 17 2015, Gates pleaded guilty to incest with his daughter Moody and was sentenced to 10 days in jail.  He was also barred from having any contact with Moody, his daughter which he promptly broke.  In addition, Gates was ordered to repay the state the medical costs that have been incurred by the children.  He is back in jail serving the rest of his sentence for breaking his probation terms.  Moody was also sentenced to 10 days in jail for the same charge on March 27 2015 and she was released for time served.  She was also given 18 months probation with the same no contact order.

The second child had been taken by the state four days after it was born on June 2014.  Both Moody and Gates have asked an appeals court to overturn the initial ruling and have the child returned to them but that was denied this week.  They argued that their relationship posed no risk to their now four month old child.

The state argued that their relationship was a chaotic lifestyle, Moody had substance abuse problems and Gates had a fairly long criminal history.  Gates had done several fairly long stints in jail and that was why he was not there for his daughter, Moody, when she was growing up.  I am not sure about the chaos but Moody has had five children so far and does not seem to want to do anything to prevent it.

The state also argued that they expected that the second child would probably develop similar medical issues as it's sibling and their belief is that many of them may be caused by the close genetics of a father-daughter relationship.  Obviously these two can't stay away from each other and since the children are affected, genetically, they should have someone step in and prevent them from having more.  They call incest a crime for a reason and these two may be a prime example of it.




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dad-daughter-convicted-incest-lose-custody-child-article-1.2179555

http://7online.com/news/father-daughter-plead-guilty-to-felony-incest-/575511/

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/32958819-75/man-woman-convicted-in-incest-case-wont-get-baby-back.html.csp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3032060/Biological-father-49-daughter-25-incest-relationship-lose-custody-second-baby-plagued-genetic-problems-taken-away.html

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20150117/NEWS03/150119019