(Atlantic, IA) – The attorney for a woman who was set to stand trial next week in Cass County, wants to clarify the charges against his client. It was reported from information gleaned from court documents by multiple news outlets, that Alison Elaine Dorsey would enter a written plea of guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter and Child Endangerment Causing Death. Attorney Trevor Hook said Dorsey would ONLY be pleading guilty to the Involuntary Manslaughter charge. Count Two: Child Endangerment Causing Death, will be dismissed at her sentencing next Thursday (Feb. 26th).

Hook told KJAN “The plea agreement, it’s weird. The form, you have to put the charges on front page. That’s not what you’re pleading to, it’s just what she’s charged with.” The plea agreement says “She’ll plead guilty to Count One – a lesser included offense of Involuntary Manslaughter – 5-years (maximum prison term), with credit for all the time she did in prison (about 20-months).” Count Two would be dismissed.

In her written plea, Dorsey wrote that while she was caring for 11-week old Luka Hodges in 2019, she picked him up. She said was being fussy and wouldn’t eat, so she rocked him in her arms harder than she should have.  Dorsey said she regrets her actions unintentionally caused the infant’s death.

Dorsey’s trial was previously set to take place Feb. 24th in Cass County District Court. It was to have been her third trial. The first in Atlantic ended ended in a hung jury/mistrial. The second, held June, 2023 in Pottawattamie County, resulted in a conviction for second-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death, but the verdict was overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court because they said, it was improperly moved from Cass to Pott. County. It was reset and scheduled to take place in Atlantic

Dorsey, who ran a daycare center in Massena, will appear before a judge at 9:30-a.m., Feb. 26th to enter her plea and receive her sentence.