BAY MINETTE, Ala. – The trial of a woman accused of being part of a group of relatives who shared children for sex will remain in the local Alabama county, a judge ruled Monday.
Baldwin County Circuit Judge Jody Bishop denied a defense attorney’s change of venue request in the case against Wendy Wood Holland. Defense lawyer Mitzi G. Johnson-Theodoro argued in a pretrial hearing that extensive local publicity would make it difficult to find jurors who did not know about the case.
But a prosecutor said another defendant in the case was recently tried by a Baldwin County jury without a problem and that moving the week long trial, which is set to start Dec. 8, somewhere else would be an unnecessary and expensive step.
Bishop agreed.
Holland, 35, has pleaded not guilty to sodomy, sexual abuse and other crimes in what authorities say was a family sex ring along the state’s Gulf Coast.