Edina Couple Charged With Felony Child Abuse & Neglect

By Echo Menges

According to court documents Christie E. Eslinger, 32, of Edina is charged with three Class C Felony counts of Child Endangerment in the First Degree. It has been alleged that Eslinger allowed her live-in boyfriend, Matthew E. Coop, to physically abuse her three children, ages 13, 7 and 4 between November 1, 2011 and January 29, 2012. It is also alleged Eslinger left the children home alone overnight on numerous occasions between the above mentioned dates.

Matthew E. Coop, 25, of Edina is facing three Class C Felony counts of Child Abuse in the First Degree and two Class C Felony counts of Child Endangerment in the First Degree.

Coop is accused of beating his girlfriend’s children in a “severe and rough manner” with a “belt” and striking the youngest child so hard the child fell off of a chair causing the child’s head to strike a wall.

Coop is also accused of attempting to give one of the children “beer” then striking the child after the child refused to drink it. The above-mentioned incidents are alleged to have happened between November 1, 2011 and January 29, 2012.

Officer Jeanette Randall of the Edina Police Department investigated the couple.

The Knox County Prosecutors Office obtained warrants for the arrests of Eslinger and Coop on Thursday, February 2, 2012.

Edina Police Officer Jeanette Randall and Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy David Fagin took Eslinger into custody on Friday night, February 3, at the Edina Apartments. She is being held at the Lewis County Jail on a $15,000 cash only bond.

Coop was taken into custody at a residence in Kahoka by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office on Friday, February 3, and is being held at the Lewis County Jail on a $25,00 cash only bond.

If convicted each count of Felony Child Endangerment and Felony Child Abuse comes with a sentence of up to seven years in prison.