After Toddler's Homicide, Mom Charged With Endangerment
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Minnesota mother faces child endangerment charges after her daughter died while in the care of her boyfriend.
Prosecutors say Lia Pearson knew her daughter was being abused but didn't do anything to stop it.
Court documents say she recently sent Leb Meak money while he was in jail, told him she wants to marry him and enlarged a photo of him to poster size and hung it in her room.
Pearson claims her continued contact with the man accused of killing her daughter is all about closure.
"I have not gotten to talk to him since that day, and I don't think I want to," Pearson said in a February interview with WCCO.
Lia Pearson then said she had no words for Meak, the man accused of killing her 18-month-old daughter, Genysis.
"It's so hard to believe that he is that monster that he is," Pearson said.
Maplewood police found the girl dead in Meak's apartment in February.
Investigators say she had several bruises on her stomach, chest and face.
Meak has been charged with the girl's murder and now Pearson has been charged with endangerment of a child.
"I want answers," Pearson said.
According to court documents, prosecutors want answers as to why Pearson did not remove her daughter from the home after she saw the injuries.
A review of recorded jail phone conversations reveals Pearson talked to Meak on several occasions between Feb. 22 and April 14.
The criminal complaint says she told him her daughter had forgiven him.
She also told him she wanted to be comforted in his arms and she loves him so much that she wants him to be her partner in life and in the future.
"It is unfortunate that I trusted someone so much, because I knew him for more than five years," Pearson said.
Pearson talked to WCCO by phone Tuesday night and said the conversations were about closure.
She said she misses the man she once knew and is having a hard time dealing with loss.
Pearson says she lost her daughter, a five-year friendship and a relationship she thought would be forever. Pearson has three other children.
She has a date with a judge at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to determine if it is safe to leave the children with her.
On May 15, she'll face the child endangerment charges.
If convicted of the child endangerment charge, Pearson faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.