{"id":118396,"date":"2026-02-19T20:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/118396\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:54:08","slug":"lower-macungie-couple-accused-of-starving-twins-to-get-taxpayer-paid-attorneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/118396\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower Macungie couple accused of starving twins to get taxpayer-paid attorneys"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Lower Macungie Township couple accused of attempting to fatally starve 15-year-old twin boys in their care<\/a> will be represented by taxpayer-paid private defense attorneys at a rate of $135 an hour, a Lehigh County judge ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n

Tracy Dechant, 43, the boys\u2019 mother, and her husband, Joshua Dechant, 36, told Judge James T. Anthony that while they bring home about $6,000 a month from their full-time jobs, child support and the mortgage on their $600,000 home leave them with nothing to spare toward legal fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just trying to keep our heads above water and not lose our house,\u201d Tracy Dechant told the judge.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s lack of legal representation has stalled the case<\/a>, which began in January 2024 when one of the twins went to a neighbor\u2019s home asking for food, prompting a police investigation. The teens told authorities that they endured punishments including standing outside naked in the freezing cold and being denied food and water, police said.<\/p>\n

When admitted to the hospital, one brother weighed approximately 53 pounds and the other weighed approximately 55 pounds. Doctors said boys of their size and age should weigh approximately 110-143 pounds.<\/p>\n

The Dechants do not qualify for public defenders. County judges have discretion to appoint defense attorneys for unrepresented persons, especially in complex cases.<\/p>\n

Before making his decision, Anthony questioned the Dechants about their finances. Tracy Dechant told the judge that she makes about $50,000 a year as customer service representative and Joshua Dechant makes about $70,000 at a heating, ventilation and air conditioning firm.<\/p>\n

They have a $2,500-per-month mortgage and are a month behind on payments, Tracy Dechant told the judge, and pay $1,900 in child support for three children. They\u2019ve already paid $21,800 in legal fees for one hearing before dropping their attorneys, and had to put up approximately $30,000 toward bail, which was $750,000 each initially with $200,000 added after additional charges were filed, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t have any money left at the end of the month,\u201d Tracy Dechant told the judge.<\/p>\n

The Dechants are charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit third-degree murder and other charges. If convicted of aggravated assault, they could serve at least two years behind bars.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors did not take a position on the couple\u2019s request for court-appointed lawyers. The Dechants\u2019 new attorneys, Molly Heidorn and Eric Harakal, did not comment after the hearing.<\/p>\n

The Dechants will return to court May 7.\u00a0 At that time the judge could rule on the prosecution\u2019s motion to allow jurors<\/a> to hear the teens\u2019 statements to doctors and neighbors under the \u201ctender age doctrine,\u201d a controversial exception that allows statements by children 16 years and younger.<\/p>\n

Laurie Mason Schroeder is a freelance reporter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Lower Macungie Township couple accused of attempting to fatally starve 15-year-old twin boys in their care will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,46,182,139,432],"class_list":["post-118396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-courts","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}