Some charges dismissed against mom, grandparents of starved boy

Combined dispatches

MERCER, PA.

Three members of a Greenville, Pa., family have been convicted of reduced charges for purportedly starving an 8-year-old boy in Mercer County.

Mary Rader, 28, the boy’s mother, and Deana Beighly, 48, his grandmother, pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated assault in Mercer County Common Pleas Court.

They had been charged with conspiracy and attempted murder.

The Greenville women’s lawyers were unavailable to comment.

According to The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, 21 WFMJ-TV, Judge Christopher St. John dismissed charges of unlawful restraint and false imprisonment against the women.

Rader has been ordered to undergo a psychological assessment before she is sentenced. It will be up to Judge St. John to decide the sentence, but she faces 10 to 20 years in prison, the TV station reported.

Mercer County District Attorney Robert Kochems tells the TV station that Rader told the judge that she should have taken her son to a doctor sooner.

Deana Beighly has an agreement with the prosecution to receive a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison.

Dennis Beighly, 59, the boy’s step-grandfather, pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of children. He could be sentenced to nine to 16 months in prison.

The judge said Beighly didn’t directly care for the boy, but had some knowledge of the child’s condition.

Police said the unnamed child weighed just 25 pounds when he was found in the Greenville, Pa., home in June 2014. He was 7 at that time. He was fed only small portions of tuna fish and eggs and was beaten frequently with a belt, especially when he was caught sneaking food, according to the reports.

The child was removed from Greenville schools in 2013 to undergo home schooling. At home, he purportedly was not permitted out of the house except on the back porch where he would catch bugs and sometimes eat them.

The boy remains in foster care.

The three are scheduled to be sentenced April 27.