North Pole woman charged with abusing children
North Pole woman charged with abusing children
Posted: Monday, June 11, 2001
FAIRBANKS (AP) -- A North Pole woman was arrested on multiple assault charges for allegedly physically abusing at least three of four children in her care.
Lottie R. Beasley, 51, was arraigned on the charges in district court on Saturday. She was being held at Fairbanks Correctional Center on $15,000 bail. She has denied she abused the children.
Alaska State Troopers first became involved in the case on June 1 when two boys, an 11-year-old and 10-year-old, ran away from Beasley's Still Valley Road home. Beasley was caring for four children at the home. There also was a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old girl.
Trooper Eric Olsen said Beasley had adopted one of the children and was trying to adopt the other three. All of the children were taken into protective custody by the Division of Family and Youth Services. Olsen said some of the children may be related to Beasley.
''I have had a chance to work all over Alaska ... and I haven't run across anything like this at all,'' Olsen said.
Court documents allege that Beasley beat three children in her care for two or three years. The 10-year-old boy said he was beaten with a metal broomstick on his back and with plastic pipe. Another said he was beaten with a broomstick and extension cords and burned with a curling iron.
The 6-year-old girl told police that Beasley never hit her or her younger sister. However, the older boys told police that the 6-year-old girl was hit in the head with a broom while she was in the bathtub, court documents say.
Beasley's husband, Peter Beasley, also told troopers that he witnessed his wife beating the 6-year-old with a broom on ''multiple occasions,'' according to court documents. The documents say he said he had seen Beasley hit the children with extension cords about a dozen times, seen her use broomsticks about 25 times and has seen her hit one of the children with a frying pan.
Peter Beasley told troopers he tried to intervene but his wife also hit him and he was afraid of her.
The children told troopers they were beaten for things like ''sitting around, not doing the dishes, not taking a bath or not putting a blanket in the closet,'' documents say.