Woman convicted for feeding child hot sauce

People: Jessica Beagley forced her adopted russian child to have hot sauce,sent video to dr phil show.

A woman who squirted hot sauce into the mouth of her adopted Russian son for lying about getting in trouble in school has been convicted of misdemeanour child abuse in what prosecutors said was a ploy to get on the Dr. Phil TV show.

Jessica Beagley,36,made a videotape of how she punished the boy and submitted it to the show. The tape shows Beagley yelling at the crying boy,then tipping his chin up and pouring hot sauce in his mouth.

Beagley then had the screaming boy stand in a cold shower for sword-fighting with pencils in school. Both actions were recorded on a videotape submitted to the Dr. Phil show. Anchorage police got calls from viewers after the show aired last October.

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Neither Beagley nor her husband showed any emotion when the six-person jury announced its decision Tuesday. They did not answer questions from reporters. Jessica Beagley could face the maximum sentence of one year in jail,a $10,000 fine and up to 10 years of probation when she is sentenced Monday,said District Judge David Wallace.

Beagley and her husband,Gary,an Anchorage police officer,adopted twins in 2008 when they were 5 years old. The boys had already spent three years in an orphanage. When located by Russian authorities,their family was living in a shack and the twins were sleeping on shelves in an armoire.

One of the twins made a fairly easy adjustment to his new home in Alaska,but the other exhibited behavioural problems that included lying and urinating on the floor.

Defence attorney William Ingaldson said his client was faced with a difficult situation dealing with a child with emotional problems when she reached out to the Dr. Phil show for help.

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When the episode aired,it sparked public outrage in Russia,with some people demanding the boy and his twin brother,who were both adopted by Beagley and her husband,be returned to their native country. Franklin told the jury it wasn’t Beagleys first attempt to get on the Dr. Phil show.