Former Emmett woman pleads to second-degree child abuse

By Dave Fredrick

The Yale Expositor

ST. CLAIR COUNTY — A former Emmett resident was sentenced in a St. Clair County Court last week and is now facing up to 10 years in prison. 

According to multiple media reports and the St. Clair County Prosecutor’s Office, 39-year old Sarah Hager is facing a sentence of 6-10 years after pleading to a lesser charge than originally placed on her. Hager was originally charged with seven felony counts of child abuse over a period of four years. 

Hager, according to court documents, was accused of brutally abusing two foster children in her care, over a four-year span, including confining them in dog cages. She was sentenced June 29. 

She pled guilty May 18 to two counts of second-degree child abuse, one count of second-degree child abuse in the presence of another child and one count of attempted torture. Court records show all of the other charges were dismissed. 

Hager, who is now listed as a resident of Port Huron, was taken into custody in March and charged with the seven felony counts — including child abuse and torture — for allegedly abusing children in her care from 2017 to 2021.

She was sentenced to serve 6-10 years for the child abuse charges and 42 months to five years for attempted torture. Both sentences are to be served concurrently, court officials say in documentation. She also received a credit of 119 days  for time already served.

Speaking to authorities in February of this year, two unidentified minor children, a boy and a girl, said they experienced unspeakable horror while living with Hager in Emmett. They told authorities Hager routinely abused them, including beating them and locking them inside darkened rooms and a dog cage.

Authorities say the boy alleged in the interview Hager proceeded to beat him and rub his face in a bed soaked with urine after he wet his bed. Child Protective Services was alerted of the abuse in 2025 and then notified the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office. Hager was taken into custody by the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 27, 2026.