Havre woman charged with child abuse

The state court has summoned a Havre woman to face felony charges alleging she abused two children while they were in her care.

Lori Morin-Beck, born in 1960, is scheduled to enter a plea on two felony counts of assault on a minor during an arraignment hearing set for May 28.

According to the charging documents, Havre police officers were notified Oct. 12 by a representative of Northern Montana Hospital that the two children may have been abused.

The children were taken to the hospital that day by two child protection specialists after one of the specialists received a report of possible abuse the day before, the documents say.

The ages of the children were not listed, but both were younger than 14, the documents say. They had stayed with the defendant in early October, the documents say.

One of the children told a Havre police detective that Morin-Beck had hit her, causing bruises the detective asked about, and that Morin-Beck "did it" when asked about a spot on her head missing hair.

She said the other girl gets bruised by Morin-Beck "from not listening, and that she … gets in trouble a lot," and sometimes is choked by the defendant.

A day care provider who reported the possible abuse to the child protection specialists told an investigating officer that Oct. 11 she noticed red spots above the right eye of one of the children. The child said Morin-Beck had caused it, the documents say.

The day care provider said she also noticed a bald spot with what appeared to be a couple of cuts on the child's head, and that she and the child protective specialist found bruising on the child's head, ear, back and buttocks.

The other child later told officers that Morin-Beck hit her in the stomach, grabbed her and the other child very hard and grabbed the other child by the throat.

She also told the officer that she is scared of the defendant and that Morin-Beck told her she would hurt the girl if she talked about what happened, the document said.