Bellefonte woman sentenced to jail for giving children meth, baths with bleach
A Bellefonte woman accused of giving methamphetamine to at least one child and bathing two others in bleach was sentenced Monday to more than 11 months in jail.
Tara A. Auman, 33, was sentenced by Centre County Judge Katherine Oliver to 11 1/2 to 23 1/2 months in the Centre County Correctional Facility. She received credit for about five months served.
Auman was also sentenced to five years of probation. She declined an opportunity to make a statement before her sentence was handed down.
Auman was arrested in May. She was also accused of spraying alcohol on two children because she was “hallucinating that bugs were coming from their bodies,” borough police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
One child told a detective the bathroom smelled “like a pool” during the baths, while another said they became addicted to meth. Auman, police wrote, acted in “total disregard for the care and safety” of all the children involved.
She pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts each of child endangerment and corruption of minors. The plea meant she accepted the conviction, but did not expressly admit she committed the crime.
The charges, Oliver said during the hearing, led to “an emotional case in many ways.” The children and two adults were among those who sat in the back row of the courtroom and authored written statements.
One described the allegations as “sickening,” but also added the children are doing “fantastic.” Another described feeling betrayed, left coping with a “lifetime of trust issues.”
But they also spoke optimistically about the future.
“We’re all doing much better,” one of the children wrote. “And we got a chance at life that all kids deserve.”