Jan. 16—A former Decatur probation officer and foster mom charged last year with child abuse in Morgan County faces new charges in Lawrence County for allegedly forcing a girl to sleep naked in a kennel with dogs, according to an indictment filed Tuesday.
Jodie (sometimes spelled Joddie) Brooke King, 48, was charged in December by a Lawrence County grand jury with aggravated child abuse, a Class B felony, according to Tuesday’s filing.
King, a 22-year law enforcement veteran and former foster parent through the Department of Human Resources (DHR) for around 20 years, according to attorney Eric Summerford, was indicted by a Morgan County grand jury last year on eight counts of child abuse and arrested on May 6. She was released from the Morgan County Jail less than two hours after her booking on a $30,000 bond.
According to the Lawrence County indictment, King abused a child by: “slapping her, pulling her hair, hitting her with the metal part of a belt in the eye, putting her in a dog kennel to sleep with the dogs while she was naked, chained her to a fence with a dog leash, and shooting a gun beside her head.”
An employee with the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles since 2009, King was terminated from her position on May 6, according to the bureau. Jonna McGuyre, the biological mother of two of the alleged victims, told The Decatur Daily that she was a former probationer under King’s supervision.
McGuyre, who has a history of substance abuse and related criminal charges, said she signed over custody of her two young children to King on Jan. 8, 2021. She said DHR was involved in that process “the whole time.” Her oldest child, a boy, went to live with a family friend, Emily Woodall.
At the time, the director of Morgan County DHR, Lainie Alexander, declined to say whether King had been a foster mom.
In October 2023, King brought the children to visit her parents, who had been in a car accident, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to McGuyre. The children were able to visit McGuyre’s sister, who lived in the area.
McGuyre said the boy told her sister that King had been hurting him, and her sister recorded the testimony. That Halloween, while trick-or-treating with Woodall and their older brother, the boy told his older brother that King “would throw him in ice water, cuss him and scratch him,” according to Woodall.
Woodall said the children reported the abuse to authorities shortly after. She said she believes the children were taken from King in February 2024. DHR never responded to inquiries regarding when the children were removed from King’s care.
After King’s arrest in May 2024, Summerford told The Daily that King “vehemently denies” the allegations in the Morgan County indictment.
On May 17, an assistant district attorney moved to revoke King’s bond after learning that King had “participated during bathtime” with one of the victims in violation of her bond conditions, which prohibited contact.
Morgan County Circuit Judge Stephen Brown sealed King’s case file on May 21. The Decatur Daily can no longer access developments in that case.
In Lawrence County, court records showed King was booked into jail on her new charge on Tuesday and held on a $15,000 bond. King did not appear in the Lawrence County Jail roster on Wednesday.
Court records listed no defense attorney Wednesday in King’s Lawrence County case. Lawrence County District Attorney Errek Jett did not immediately respond to inquiries.
— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.