Mifflinburg woman charged after police find unsafe home, infants at risk
Police say a Chestnut Street welfare check found a crying infant beside an unconscious adult, drug items, and a home so unsafe two children were removed.
A welfare check on Chestnut Street in Mifflinburg led police to a scene they described as so unsafe that two very young children were taken into protective custody and a second adult now faces child-endangerment charges.
Mifflinburg Borough Police said Officer David Shaffer was dispatched to the residence on May 2 to check on a 3-month-old infant and a 4-year-old boy. When he arrived, police said Bradley Thomas Beardsley, 34, was passed out with the infant nearby and screaming. Investigators reported finding multiple pill bottles, drug-related items, a large knife, empty bowls with moldy food, insects, old milk bottles and other signs of neglect inside the home.
Police said Brittney Lynn Miller, 31, the mother of the children, returned while Shaffer was still at the house and appeared intoxicated. Court paperwork quoted police as saying the children were living with a knife within reach, disconnected smoke detectors and conditions so poor that, if a fire had started, the caregiver likely would not have awakened in time to get the children out safely. Investigators also said a pacifier was found in a box with drug items.
Miller was charged with felony endangering the welfare of children, along with misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arraigned on May 15 and posted $30,000 bail through professional bondsman Braxtyn Kearse. Beardsley also posted bail and is awaiting a preliminary hearing on his own charges.
The children were turned over to Union County Children and Youth Services, shifting the case from a police response to the court and child-welfare systems that now will shape what happens next. Both defendants are scheduled to appear before District Judge Jeffrey L. Mensch on June 30 at Magisterial District Court 17-3-02, 343 Chestnut Street in Mifflinburg. In Pennsylvania, magisterial district courts handle preliminary hearings in misdemeanor and felony cases, where prosecutors must first show enough evidence for the charges to move deeper into county court.
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