The defense attorneys of a Winfield woman facing felony charges of neglect, child abuse, and child endangerment will soon be pushing for bail reduction.

Brenda Deutsch’s attorneys, Joseph Flees II and Daniel Juengel of Frank and Juengel Law Firm in Clayton per court records, will be attempting to lessen her $250,000 cash-only bond.

They filed a motion for the bond reduction earlier this week to 10 percent of $50,000, or $5,000 total.

“I’m waiting for a response from the Lincoln County prosecutor’s office as to whether or not they will seek grand jury indictment in this case,” Flees said. “That’s all done in secret and the defense isn’t allowed to participate in that. I hope they don’t do that because we would like to have our day in court in front of a judge to bring light to this and to challenge the evidence, but the state has the ability to go a different route with it with the grand jury. We’re hoping that we have our chance of a preliminary hearing. At some point, we will be revisiting the bond situation with the court.”

According to Flees, the current bond amount is too high for Deutsch to make. He says they will be asking the court to reconsider the bond amount due to Deutsch being a longtime Lincoln County resident as well as her age, health conditions, and not being a flight risk.

Deutsch, 70, has been accused of allegedly physically abusing dozens of adopted and foster children in her care over the last two decades, including a 14-year-old girl, that was reported missing last December before authorities located her in Texas in early February. The multiple felony charges are a result of allegations of the missing youth.

That girl remains in state custody in Texas amidst the allegations and reports Deutsch allegedly traded her for a monkey.

“She adamantly denies that,” Flees said of the allegation that Deutsch allegedly exchanged a juvenile for a monkey. “We’ve not received any police reports or information to suggest that whatsoever. We’re waiting on police reports but I’ve not seen anything that would support that.”

Additionally, Flees said his client has a number of supporters and believes accusations against Deutsch are mainly driven by something else entirely.

“We think that this is largely motivated by an individual that has separate grievances with her and we’ve gotten a number of calls from friends, family members, and people in the community saying that they want to stand up and vouch for her character,” he said.

Meanwhile, Flees says they are waiting on the prosecutor’s office to give them the evidence. Once that happens, there will be a thorough investigation. Flees said a motion for disclosure of evidence was filed on April 21 and the turnaround time is generally two weeks.

“We’re hoping that we’ll get the evidence, police reports, and any recordings of witnesses,” he said. “Then we figure out what witness interviews we need to conduct and go from there. In this particular case, we have received a number of unsolicited calls from people who are familiar with the individuals who have made complaints attacking their credibility so we’re going to explore all that and all the police evidence because we do believe these allegations to be false.”

As Deutsch’s case progresses, the Lincoln County Journal asked Flees if his client would ever consider a plea deal should it be offered.

“Too early to say, but at this point she’s presumed innocent and has told us she’s absolutely innocent, so we’re not even looking at that right now,” he said.

Deutsch is next scheduled in court for a preliminary hearing and a bond reduction hearing on May 13 at 2 p.m.