Accused parents may be reunited with child

A Beaver County couple charged with waterboarding their 13-year-old daughter would be reunited with the child under a tentative plea deal worked out with the district attorney’s office and Children & Youth Services.

A judge must sign off on the agreement.

If approved, Malisa and Dion Stevens each would plead guilty to a felony count of endangering the welfare of children. They would accept seven years of probation, which could be shortened to five if the parents behave, according to Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier.

In return, they would be reunited under supervision with the daughter, whom they allegedly bound, put in a chair in a basement, tilted backward with a wet towel covering her face, and doused with cold water.

Felony counts of strangulation, aggravated assault and unlawful restraint would be dropped as would a misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person.

“If we kept the strangulation and aggravated assault, the family would never be able to reunify, and the minor wanted to regain contact with the parents,” Mr. Lozier said Monday, several hours after the couple waived their right to a preliminary hearing. “The goal here is to allow the minor to return to live with her parents under close supervision of CYS.”

The Stevenses were charged last year with using waterboarding — a simulated drowning technique and torture

method authorities said they learned from television or the movies — to punish their daughter.

In May, a CYS caseworker told police that the couple had admitted to waterboarding the girl. She told police that the incident occurred in November 2016.

Mr. Lozier explained the thought process behind bringing the parents back together with their daughter, who has been living with her maternal grandparents.

“After six months [of working with CYS and the child], we are comfortable, as comfortable as you can get. There’s obviously a very horrible circumstance, but we are comfortable that an attempt to reunify the family after an intense supervision with CYS is in the best interests of this child,” Mr. Lozier said.

Also involved in the decision were the Aliquippa police, the lawyers for Ms. Stevens, 41, and Mr. Stevens, 34, and agencies in other counties. Mr. Lozier declined to elaborate other than to say that while the alleged events took place in Beaver County, the plea offer “involved several agencies because it crossed county lines.”

“The parents had no prior record. This was the desire of the minor, and you have to have a minor who is cooperative at every stage of a proceeding. You can’t do more damage to the minor [with a plea agreement],” Mr. Lozier said. “Whereas incarceration for an extended period of time for the parents was not in the best interests of the child under the facts.”

Mr. Lozier said a reunion would not take place overnightbut rather would occur in stages.

“The parents are going to have to go through psychiatric evaluations, parenting class. It’ll be a phased-in thing conducted and supervised by CYS. It’s not going to happen tomorrow,” Mr. Lozier said. “This is going to be a long process.”

Lee Rothman, Ms. Stevens’ attorney, said a no-contact order had been modified to allow the mother and daughter to see each other under the auspices of CYS.

“It is my hope that we can reconcile the daughter and mother and they get back together as a family unit,” Mr. Rothman said.