Prosecutor, Clinton Woman Reach Plea Deal in 2011 Sex Assault Case

Prosecutors have reached a plea bargain with a 21-year-old Clinton woman charged in connection with sexual relationships she had with two separate Southington teenage boys in 2010 and 2011, leaving the woman facing a three-year prison sentence.

Loni Bouchard entered a guilty plea to three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment last week in Middletown Superior Court, a reduced set of charges from those she faced when initially arrested in August 2011. Bouchard is facing a three-year prison sentence, execution suspended after a year served, but could argue for less during a sentencing hearing in September.

She remains out on bond after posting the bond following each of her arrests.

Southington police first arrested Bouchard in August 2011 following an investigation into complaints made by the parents of a 14-year-old Southington boy and was charged again in September 2011 when the investigation found she had also had a sexual relationship with a second 14-year-old.

She initially faced four counts of second-degree sexual assault, five counts of risk of injury to a minor and illegal purchase of alcohol by a minor, according to court records.

A police affidavit, released following her second arrest, indicated that Bouchard had a committed relationship with one of the two boys and had slept with the other while serving as a babysitter for his family. She was 19-years-old at the time of the alleged incidents.

A journal seized from Bouchard during the investigation provided details of one of the relationships and an entry questioned why she shouldn’t be allowed to express her love for the 14-year-old.

In the journal, Bouchard professed her love for the first of the two alleged victims and details the sexual relationship the two had been having.

“I don't care about the law. I just want to be with him and not have to hide it. How can the law tell us who to fall for, who to like and who to love and especially who to date, I thought America was a free country," an arrest affidavit states she wrote in the journal.

According to the warrant in the first case, the victim’s mother hired Bouchard in December to babysit him and his five siblings after the Bouchard met the woman at a Salem campground. The victim’s mother told police that her son reported Bouchard was having problems at home and the mother offered to let Bouchard stay at her house whenever she wanted.

The boy would also stay at the Bouchard’s residence in Clinton often where Clinton police said Kimmy Bouchard provided marijuana and alcohol for her daughter and the 14-year-old teenager to use before his parents discovered the relationship through messages on Facebook.

Kimmy Bouchard, who was also charged in the 2011 investigation, pled guilty to one count of risk of injury to a minor and was sentenced in February to three years probation.

Last summer, Loni Bouchard applied for pretrial psychiatric treatment, which would have allowed her to avoid conviction if she successfully completed the program. That application was withdrawn before the plea agreement, according to Bouchard’s attorney Jack O'Donnell.

Bouchard will appear in person and can argue for a reduced bond during her sentencing hearing on Sept. 20., court records show.

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