Edwardsville woman charged with making false child abuse reports
Sep. 29—HUNTINGTON TWP. — State police at Shickshinny charged a woman from Edwardsville with filing bogus reports of child abuse with law enforcement authorities.
Amanda Marie Martin, 36, of Roosevelt Street, was arraigned Friday by District Judge Thomas Malloy of Wilkes-Barre on 26 counts of false reports of child abuse. Martin was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.
According to the criminal complaint:
A Luzerne County detective met with a child caseworker with Luzerne County Children and Youth Services regarding 75 protective services or general protective service complaints by Martin made to mandated reporters since 2021.
A mandatory reporter is an individual such as a teacher or PIAA athletic coach required to report known or suspected abuse or neglect involving children.
Out of the 75 complaints, 26 were investigated and the remaining were screened out at an intake level.
Nine of the 26 complaints that were investigated involved alleged sexual and physical abuse by a man identified in the complaint.
State police in the complaint say Martin has an ongoing history with contacting mandatory reporters, not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the United States making false allegations of child abuse.
The 26 complaints — 15 submitted to the state police at Shickshinny and 11 to the Edwardsville Police Department — were all unfounded after separate investigations, the complaint says.
Martin initially agreed to be questioned by state police but ultimately declined to meet with the investigator on Sept. 19.
