Alcohol blamed in domestic battery, other charges

By: 
Staff Writer Kate Wehlann

Early in the morning on Wednesday, Dec. 19, Deputies Brad Naugle and Tory Hildreth were called to a home in Pekin where an argument turned into a physical altercation.
They met a man, Franklin Bierly, Jr., and a woman, outside the home, who told them Franklin Bierly, Sr., 57, Pekin was inside the home with a knife and had threatened to kill her.

The officers found Bierly Sr. sitting on the couch with a kitchen knife on the coffee table in front of him. He eventually complied with officers’ orders to get off the couch and away from the knife. As Hildreth performed a pat-down on Bierly Sr., Bierly Jr. informed officers his father had struck him in the face.

Hildreth also spoke with the woman who had met them outside. By that time, she was in the bedroom and told Hildreth she, Amanda Bierly, Bierly Jr. and Bierly Sr. were in the living room, having a few beers, when an argument started and they tried to get Bierly Sr. to stop drinking. She said Bierly Sr. was going to go to Pop-a-Top, but he fell over a table. They fixed the table and tried to convince Bierly Sr. to stay and just go to bed. She told Hildreth Bierly Sr. began punching Bierly Jr. several times with a closed fist before she pulled Bierly Sr. off of his son.

She said she then went to her room and tried to go to sleep, but she said Bierly Sr. came in and snatched the covers off of her and told her multiple times he was going to shatter her jaw. She said she stood up on the bed and told her to leave her alone and that he was not going to hit her. Bierly Sr. threatened to kill her if the dispatcher heard it — Bierly Jr. was on the phone with the sheriff’s department in the hallway near her room at the time. The woman’s four children were also in the home, in their bedroom directly across the hall from the woman’s room.

Amanda Bierly also said she heard Bierly Sr. threaten to shatter the other woman’s jaw and kill her, along with Bierly Sr.’s previous assault on Franklin Jr., though both women said Franklin Jr. never struck Franklin Sr. in return. Bierly Jr. signed a battery affidavit regarding his father’s hitting him with a closed fist.

Bierly Sr. told officers he got out of hand partying and he didn’t mean anything he said. He added “he knew he messed up but he didn’t mean to,” according to Hildreth’s report. He later said he didn’t mean to hit his son out of hatred and that it was due to the alcohol. He told officers the woman and children had been living at his home for a little more than a year and that he takes care of the children often and pays all the bills.

Bierly Sr. was taken to the Washington County Detention Center and preliminarily charged with: domestic battery committed in the physical presence of a child younger than 16, intimidation and neglect of a dependent. While he was being booked, officers administered a breath test to Bierly Sr., which showed an ACE of .14.

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