AUGUSTA — A former teacher at Mount View High School in Thorndike was ordered to pay hundreds of dollars in fines and undergo domestic violence assault counseling and substance abuse treatment as part of a sentence she received Thursday for an incident that occurred last year at a Waterville home.
Karina Beadling, 40, was sentenced at the Capital Judicial Center on charges of domestic violence assault, assault and criminal mischief, according to Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney. Beadling had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges.
Beadling was indicted in December following an incident in which police said she assaulted two people and endangered the welfare of her child. She was a Spanish teacher at Mount View at the time. The high school is part of Regional School Unit 3.
Beadling was 39 and living in Waterville when she went to a Morrill Avenue home on Oct. 22, 2021, got into an argument with her ex-boyfriend and others inside the home and assaulted two people there, police said at the time. Before police arrived at the Waterville house, Beadling left but then drove by as police were talking to people there.
Officers stopped her soon afterward and found she had swelling above her right eye and dried blood around her mouth. Officers said they could smell alcohol, the Republican Journal reported at the time. Officers attempted to get Beadling to give them her license and come out of the car, but she refused and was removed from her car and arrested.
Police discovered Beadling’s 7-year-old daughter was in the back seat. The child was not injured and was released to the custody of a relative, police said.
Maloney said Thursday that Beadling “did not have a prior record and that was an important factor in this sentence.”
Beadling said that after her case was reported in the news in October 2021, she was placed on administrative leave from teaching until the end of the school year when the union advised her to resign.
“Previous articles were so defamatory I lost my job and even received hate mail, yet the articles lacked fact and painted a picture that was very different than the actual events,” she wrote when contacted Thursday via Facebook Messenger.
On the domestic violence assault charge, Beadling was sentenced to 180 days in jail with all but two days suspended and two years’ probation, according to Maloney. She already has served the 48 hours, she said.
Beadling is to have no use or possession of dangerous weapons or firearms and undergo random search and testing during her probation period, according to Maloney. She must also engage in substance abuse treatment and complete a certified batterers intervention course, which is a counseling program specifically for those convicted of domestic violence, she said.
On the assault charge, Beadling was sentenced to 48 hours concurrent to the time sentenced for domestic violence assault, and pay an additional $300 fine, according to Maloney. She was sentenced on the criminal mischief charge to 48 hours, concurrent with the domestic violence assault charge.
Beadling’s lawyer, Jonathan Liberman, said in an email Thursday that in exchange for Beadling’s earlier guilty plea, the state dismissed the felony charge of aggravated criminal trespass, as well as the remaining misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child and driving to endanger.
Liberman said Beadling accepted responsibility for her actions.
“Since the date of her arrest she has complied with every bail requirement, she’s also undergone counseling, and she’s taken affirmative steps to make a better life for herself and her children,” he said. “Ms. Beadling apologized in court and is deeply sorry for her actions and those she impacted.”
He later added, “People make mistakes and none of us would want to be judged on our worst day. I commend the court and the DA’s office for evaluating Ms. Beadling’s overall character and agreeing that she deserves a chance to serve probation without further jail time.”
Editor’s note: This report was updated Friday, Oct. 7, to correct that a charge of driving to endanger was dismissed earlier. Beadling was not convicted of such a charge.
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