ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – As the sentencing hearing for Cathleen Koch was to get under way Thursday, the bailiff, spotting a young child, took a second to ask those watching him to take him out of the courtroom, where young children aren’t allowed.

Eventually, that child would be mentioned in testimony from the defense and prosecution in the case against Koch, who has pleaded guilty to 13 counts associated with an attack on her then-1-year-old daughter by her then-boyfriend, James C. Cooper, at a St. Charles motel. The child in the courtroom? A 10-month-old boy born to Koch.

Koch, 30, could be sentenced to as many as 14 years on the most serious charge, aggravated domestic battery. She could receive probation. Cooper agreed to a sentence of 15 years after pleading guilty to one county of aggravated battery to a child, a Class X felony. Koch did not participate in the beating, but she was accused of not stopping the attack.