Creston resident faces trial for abuse

By Jim Osborn

COLUMBUS — A Creston man accused of physically abusing two of his live-in girlfriend’s adopted children in the family home is heading for trial in district court.

Platte County Court Judge Frank Skorupa bound 43-year-old Larry Einspahr Jr. over for trial on four counts of felony child abuse on Wednesday after the defendant waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Skorupa set Einspahr for arraignment on the charges Jan. 25 in district court.

Einspahr’s girlfriend, Janelle Gertsch, 42, has been charged with five counts of felony child abuse involving her 12-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter.

Skorupa continued Gertsch’s case until Jan. 8 in county court.

The Creston woman is the custodial parent of three adopted children, including a second daughter, age 13.

She is divorced from the adoptive father.

State officials have removed all three children from the family home because of excessive discipline.

All of the abuse charges against the couple are Class IIIA felonies, each punishable by a maximum of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.

Einspahr, whose bond has been set at 10 percent of $75,000, appeared in court Wednesday via videoconference. He has been in custody at the county jail since the couple was arrested early last week.

Gertsch, who was in the courtroom for Wednesday’s brief hearing, posted a bond of 10 percent of $50,000, about a week ago.

Court documents in the case describe an investigation that got under way after school officials were made aware in late-November of bruising and swelling injuries on the boy’s and 9-year-old girl’s lower backs.

The boy and girl described being beaten excessively with a doubled-over belt or open hands during the incidents of punishment to law enforcement officials.

The boy, said Platte County Sheriff’s Investigator Joseph Gragert in his arrest statement, described an incident in which he was struck “repeatedly” on the face by his mother in an open-handed manner after not performing a household chore.

The boy said the injuries to his face were so severe that his mother wouldn’t allow him to go to church and kept him home from school for the entire next week, which was confirmed by school attendance records.

“He was also sequestered to his basement room for several days, kept away from his sisters so they wouldn’t see how bad his injuries were and tell someone,” Gragert said.