VILLE PLATTE, La. (AP) -- The lawyer representing a Louisiana woman accused of swapping two children for an exotic bird and $175 in cash says the charge is false.
Attorney Timmy Fontenot says Donna Greenwell did not try to sell the 5-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl but was trying to find them a good home after their mother placed them in her care about a year ago.
Greenwell is a long-haul trucker from the small central Louisiana town of Pitkin. She is currently jailed on $100,000 bond.
The children are in state custody
Charges against Greenwell and the couple who allegedly bought the children have been reduced from aggravated kidnapping to "sale of minor children." A conviction on that charge would mean a maximum prison sentence of 10 years instead of life for aggravated kidnapping.
