AUBURN – A document filed in Superior Court describes Sarah and Jeremy Allen as abusive parents who ganged up on their 22-month-old son two nights before his death.

The filing alleges that Jeremy Allen spanked the boy with a wooden spoon, then Sarah Allen splashed water in his face to stop his cries.

Filed by the prosecutor who is handling the state’s charges against the Lisbon Falls couple, the document is based on interviews that police and doctors conducted with them on the night their son died.

Nathaniel Allen died Feb. 15 at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Sarah Allen has been charged with manslaughter. She is accused of shaking her adopted son with so much force on Feb. 14 that it rattled his brain and eventually killed him.

Jeremy Allen was away on business at the time of the alleged shaking. He has been charged with assault for allegedly spanking the boy the night before.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese said she filed the document, summarizing the couple’s interviews at the hospital, because she believes the judge needs the information to decide whether to hold one trial or two.

Separate trials sought

The state wants to try the couple at the same time before the same jury. The defense wants separate trials with different juries.

The Allens’ lawyers claim the state’s document – labeled “Factual Background” – is filled with inaccurate and misconstrued statements, and they don’t believe it should carry any weight in the judge’s decision about how many trials to hold.

“I reviewed the same reports that the state claims those factual statements came from,” said Verne Paradie, who is representing Sarah Allen. “The state has taken those records and interpreted them in a manner that suits them, painting a picture that is not accurate or fair.”

The document mainly focuses on the events of Feb. 13, the night that Jeremy Allen is accused of assaulting the boy. It is based on interviews conducted by a Maine State Police detective, a child abuse specialist and a Department of Human Services employee.

According to Marchese’s summary of the interviews, Sarah Allen described her son as freaking out and being naughty. She said her husband took off his diaper and spanked him three times with a wooden spoon because the boy had a defiant look in his eyes.

“Sarah admitted that the spanking did not work so she splashed a little water in his face. She further remarked, ‘This kid was out of control,'” the document states.

Defiant eyes

Jeremy Allen also described the boy as looking at him with “defiance in his eyes,” Marchese wrote.

According to the document, Jeremy Allen said he first told Nathaniel to go in the corner because the boy refused to pick up his toys.

Then he admitted that he struck him with the wooden spoon, after which his wife threw water in the boy’s face to stop his crying.

According to the document, Jeremy Allen admitted that he used the spoon three times in the past and always left bruises.

Marchese argued at a recent hearing that the details in the document show that a joint trial would not only save time and money, it would also give the jury the full picture of what was happening in the Allens’ home.

The couple’s lawyers don’t see it that way.

Paradie and George Hess, who is representing Jeremy Allen, believe that holding one trial for two people should only be permitted when the defendants are accused of committing a crime simultaneously or in the presence of the other defendant, or if the charges are exactly the same for both people and the alleged offenses occurred on the same day.

The only purpose for a joint trial in this case, the defense lawyers have argued, is to convince the jury that a pattern of abuse existed.

Hess and Paradie were given time to file a response to Marchese’s document, but neither did.

“Even if everything in the report is true, which it isn’t, the severance (of trials) is still warranted,” Paradie said.

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