Millcreek woman, charged with abuse, suspended from prison job

By ROBB FREDERICK

robb.frederick@timesnews.com

Correction

Earlier versions of this story included incorrect information about the ownership of the handcuffs Annissa D. Schoolfield is alleged to have used in her home.

A guard at the state prison at Albion used handcuffs she owned for her job at the prison to secure her adopted son to a basement railing while she beat him, Millcreek Township police charged.

Annissa D. Schoolfield told another child to bring the boy his dinner, which he ate with one hand still cuffed to the railing, police allege in court records that were filed Monday. She was angry because the boy had taken money from his piggy bank to buy items from his school store, police said.

Officials at the prison have suspended Schoolfield, 41, pending an investigation of the charges, spokeswoman Mindy Adams said Thursday.

The suspension took effect Tuesday, Adams said.

Schoolfield has worked at the prison since Aug. 5, 2008, Adams said. Before that, she worked for the Erie Family Center for Child Development, which offers a range of support programs for parents with children in the Erie School District, according to district records from 2004.

Police have charged Schoolfield with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and other crimes. The charges were based on interviews with the four children that Schoolfield and her ex-husband adopted with help from the Erie County Office of Children and Youth, according to court records.

Police allege that at one point, suspecting her son had spied on his sisters as they undressed, Schoolfield stripped the boy, paraded him in front of the girls and photographed him with her cell phone. She said she would post the photo online if the boy spied on the girls again, police said. The boy was 11 at the time.

Police have accused Schoolfield of beating the boy with a belt and a stick, cutting his hands with a kitchen knife and bloodying his nose when she struck him while in the car. She also taunted her dog until it bit the boy on the ear and arm, police said.

His sisters also received harsh punishments, according to police. Schoolfield burned one of the girls with a curling iron and then, when the girl fussed, wrapped a plastic shopping bag over the girl's head, police said.

Police said the abuse occurred when the children visited Schoolfield, who shared custody with her ex-husband, at her home on Kates Way in Millcreek. The abuse began in 2006 and continued into this year, police said.

Schoolfield's attorney did not return a call for comment Thursday. Her ex-husband did not respond to messages left at his home and office, and with his lawyer.

Schoolfield was arraigned before District Judge Sue Strohmeyer, of Greene Township, and released on $50,000 bail.

Strohmeyer has scheduled a preliminary hearing on the charges for May 11.

ROBB FREDERICK can be reached at 870-1733 or by e-mail.