Price Township couple faces trial in child abuse case

Andrew Scott

Pocono Record Writer

A Price Township couple physically abused their four children, ages 7 to 11, beating them with a metal spoon and belt and making them walk up and down steps, according to state police at Swiftwater.

Earl Fletcher, 59, and Diane Fletcher, 51, both of Pine Creek Estates, also had the children say they had fallen or gotten into fights if asked how they had gotten their bruises, according to police.

The Fletchers are awaiting trial in Monroe County Court after a recent preliminary hearing before Mountainhome Magisterial District Judge John Whitesell, who found sufficient evidence to send child welfare endangerment and simple assault charges against the couple to trial. The Fletchers have been released from custody on their own recognizance and will be scheduled for future county court appearances.

The couple's two daughters, son and adopted son have been placed in custody of Monroe County Children And Youth Services.

A police affidavit gives the following account:

On May 7, police went to JM Hill School in East Stroudsburg and spoke to Carolyn Reviello of Children And Youth and a female student about a case of suspected abuse against the student.

The student told police someone had taken her glasses on the bus. She said she went home and told her parents, who didn't believe her and began hitting her with a metal spoon and belt on her face, arms and back. She said this was not the first time she had been beaten and that her siblings had been hit with the same spoon and belt.

She said her parents sometimes made her and her siblings walk up and down the steps with their arms in the air and "say they will listen to mom and dad and be responsible." She said her parents sometimes beat them with a cane or pot and had them tell people they had fallen or gotten into fights if asked about their bruises.

She said she was afraid of her parents.

On May 12, police got written statements from Reviello and Children And Youth supervisor Stacie Gill.

Reviello and Gill said in their statements that they had contacted Diane Fletcher and told Fletcher that Children And Youth will be taking the children. Fletcher said she had "only hit the victim six times with a belt" and that she "thought it was legal to beat her children," according to Reviello and Gill.