BELLEFONTE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania woman was sentenced to spend up to two years in jail after police said she gave children drugs and bathed them in chemicals.
Tara Auman was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 1/2 months in jail to be followed by five years of probation, WJAC reported.
Auman was arrested in May and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of child endangerment and corruption of minors, according to The Centre Daily Times.
Police began investigating Auman in early April after receiving a report from Children and Youth Services that she had been smoking methamphetamine and giving drugs to children, WJAC reported. When police spoke to the oldest of four children in Auman’s care, the child said they were “failing school” because they had to stay home to take care of the other children in the home while Auman was “sleeping.”
In an affidavit of probable cause obtained by The Centre Daily Times, Auman was accused of spraying alcohol on two children in her care because she believed “bugs were coming from their bodies,” and one child told a detective that the bathroom smelled “like a pool” during baths. Bellefonte police said in the affidavit that one child told officers they were addicted to meth.
The children in the case wrote written statements that were shared with the court and watched the proceedings from the back of the courtroom, according to The Centre Daily Times.
“We’re all doing much better,” one of the children wrote. “And we got a chance at a life that all kids deserve.”
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