Mother Gets Jail Time For Offering Child For Sex Online
MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ) - A St. Clair woman who admitted to offering her four-year-old daughter for sex to a man over the Internet has been sentenced to 42 months to 7 years behind bars.
"Despicable" was how Macomb County Circuit Judge Richard Caretti described the crimes.
"You preyed on your own innocent four-year-old child who blindly looked to you for love, food shelter and protection. For your own titillation and profit, you exposed your child to unknown danger and emotional trauma," Caretti said.
The 28-year-old Andrea Ziza pleaded first told police she was working undercover to try to catch child predators when she showed a man live web video of her daughter, but later recanted her story. Ziza's defense attorney had earlier filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing the online images did not show any explicit sexual contact.
In a deal with the judge, Ziza later pleaded guilty to three counts of using a computer to commit a crime, child sexually abusive activity, producing or distributing child sexual abusive material and accosting a child for immoral purposes.
The child's father and Ziza's ex-husband Chris Ziza told the court the family had moved to Reno, Nevada two years ago for a better life, that soon turned into a nightmare.
"She had started talking to men about my daughter sexually on the Internet. She would disappear for a few days at a time with my children and for them to come back filthy, unbathed and weak looking," he said. Chris Ziza said he was told by authorities, at the time, that there was nothing he could do.
Defense Attorney Stephen Freers negotiated the plea that judge called "extremely lenient."
"I think that there were, you know, concerns about the children, whether or not they'd have to come in and testify -- things like that that probably were at the back of the judge's mind at the time, although he never really voiced that. And he was probably concerned about getting a resolution for everybody involved," Freers said.
Before her sentencing, Ziza had wanted to withdraw her plea and seek new counsel but the judge denied her motions, equating it to "buyer's remorse."
Andrea Ziza now faces the loss of her parental rights.
