Sharon Leonard struck her ten adopted children with a paddle or other objects, including a plastic pipe, a metal rod and a snow-removal brush. The children told investigators that Sharon had threatened to kill a couple of the boys. They also reported that six of them had been made to stay outside the Leonards’ home from time to time and to sleep in calf huts and the detached box trailer of a truck. The children were adopted from Ethiopia and China. Four of the Ethiopian children were siblings adopted together, and the other three were obtained through disrupted adoptions. One of the three children from China was also obtained through a disruption. The children were homeschooled through a virtual charter school, and their abuse was discovered when one of the children reported it to a teacher. Sharon and and her husband Reed were charged with misdemeanor child endangerment, and Sharon was also charged with felony child abuse, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor.
Date: September 18, 2010
Location: Neosho, Missouri
| Documents: | Date: |
| Notes | |
| An Ethiopian Adoption Story | |
| FAMILY A TRAILBLAZER IN VIRTUAL CHARTER SCHOOL | 2005-09-25 |
| Hope Reaches Africa | 2006-01-12 |
| AAI | News & Info – Kids Helping Kids | 2006-04-01 |
| ADOPTING WHEN OTHERS CANNOT | 2008-04-01 |
| Sun Prairie Family Adopts 10 Children, Advocates For Adoption | 2008-11-03 |
| Newton County couple’s custody of 10 foreign children in jeopardy | 2010-09-18 |
| Prosecutor: Felony child-abuse charge likely to be reduced for Neosho woman | 2011-03-07 |
| Obituary Donald Joseph Brancato (Sharon Leonard’s father) [private note] | 2012-10-09 |
