12-year-old Kentucky girl crafts bill aimed at changing way violent child abusers are sentenced

By Natasha Williams

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    OLDHAM COUNTY, Kentucky (WLKY) — A Kentucky mother is fighting to change the law so child abusers serve more time behind bars.

And now, she’s getting help from a 12-year-old Oldham County girl who wrote the bill to bring about change. The bill is known as Kammie’s Law.

“Every mom who has a girl dreams of weddings, and grandkids, pageants, and these things you all want for your kids, and he took that from me,” Kylie McCarty, Kamille’s mom, as she laments about the activities she will never enjoy with her now 6-year-old daughter.

At just 9 months old, Kylie McCarthy’s little girl was attacked by her then-boyfriend, Paul Raque. She was given just a 10% chance of survival.

Raque served less than five years in prison.

“Four years and eight months. Shaking and throwing my daughter, and giving her life-long, life-altering conditions,” she said.

McCarthy is now pushing for longer sentences for violent child abusers. A bill to help do just that was named for her daughter, Kamille, or Kammie.

It was written by 12-year-old Kiera Dunk of Oldham County, a member of the Kentucky Youth Advocates.

“In Kammie’s case, her abuser pled down to a felony that is typically used for theft, and I didn’t want child abuse listed under the same thing as a theft,” Dunk said.

With the help of Kentucky Speaker of the House David Osbourne, Dunk crafted a bill to change sentencing guidelines for violent child abusers. She got the idea while working with her mom on another bill she wrote that licensed midwives in the state.

“I remember the car ride home after our bill had passed, she said, ‘Mom, what are we going to do now?’ So I said, ‘Honey, find something you are passionate about,” said Kiera’s mom, Brandi Dunk.

Kammie’s Law is set to be introduced in the legislature at a time when Kentucky leads the nation in child abuse cases. It’s a reality McCarthy lives with every day. She hopes Kammie’s Law will save another mother from having to endure this type of pain.

“We had to go to every parole hearing, we had to go and say, ‘This is not right. Not the justice system, not the police. We sat here afterward and said, ‘What do we do now?’ It’s so sad that prisoners, they have more rights than their victims do,” McCarthy said as she fought back tears.

Kiera’s project started at East Oldham Middle School, where the Kentucky Youth Advocates meet, and she is hoping later this year legislators will pick up that bill and make it law.

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