Women admit locking children in basement

A Kalispell couple admitted in Flathead District Court on Wednesday that they went too far in disciplining their adoptive children by locking them overnight in a basement bedroom on multiple occasions.

Crystal Mears, 37, and Amy Newman, 46, each pleaded guilty to two counts of felony criminal endangerment as a part of plea agreements that dropped additional counts of criminal endangerment.

While on the witness stand, Newman explained that three children were under her and Mears’ care. Newman is the adoptive mother of the children.

A girl, age 12, and two boys, age 11 and 9, were housed in the basement. The boys had behavioral issues, Newman said. They would tamper with the water heater during the night and one of the boys allegedly “put cat litter and cat food down his sister’s throat.”

Though the children were in counseling, Newman said she felt it was necessary for the boys to be locked in their rooms overnight because the behavior might put other family members at risk. The boys were locked in a basement bedroom and the girl was in another unlocked room in the basement and could have come upstairs to get an adult in event of an emergency, Newman said.

“Generally, it was from bedtime until the next morning when I got up,” Newman explained about how long the children were confined.

She admitted that the decision was “not the best choice under the circumstances.” She said she did not mean to harm the children.

Mears eventually admitted that she believed she had played an active part in the confinement of the children by consulting with Newman. Mears said she never actually locked the boys in the basement.

District Judge Robert Allison noted that he, the prosecution and the defense all had some concern about the testimony in the case meeting the elements of criminal endangerment, which occurs if a person “knowingly engages in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another.”

By the end of the hearing, all parties agreed that the children could have been in danger in the event of a fire or other emergency. Prosecutor Alison Howard also said that the couple were agreeing to a change of plea, and that if the case were to go to trial, there would be other evidence presented against the pair.

According to court documents, prosecutors charged the pair in May after someone reported to school staff and police that three children had been locked in a basement for extended periods of time without access to lighting, a toilet or food.

Kalispell Police investigated and found three small mattresses and no other furniture in the basement room, and no light other than what was coming from a crack in a window. The windows had been boarded up. There were numerous locks, including padlocks and zip ties, on the basement door.

Mears and Newman said that the door to the basement itself was never locked, but the boys were locked in their rooms.

The children were removed from the home earlier this year, but Mears and Newman were granted some supervised visits with them. The fate of the children is in the hands of Child and Family Services. That agency’s hearings and records are not open to the public.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.