Kyodo via Japan Today: American parents acquitted of fatal child abuse after being in custody since 2000
The Tokyo District Court acquitted Thursday an American couple who have remained in custody since their arrest in Tokyo in 2000 on suspicion of beating their 4-year-old son to death in 1994, citing ‘‘reasonable doubt’’ and ‘‘unnatural’’ evidence provided by prosecutors. Chief defense lawyer Osamu Wakuda for Terry Beamon, a 52-year-old karate instructor, and his wife Jewel Curtis, 48, urged prosecutors to accept the ruling, saying, ‘‘Making an appeal and continuing to keep them in custody would be an outrageous denial of human rights’’...But prosecutors called the ruling ‘‘regrettable’’ and said they will take ‘‘appropriate’’ action after studying the ruling. The couple were arrested six years after their son’s death and have remained in custody for about seven years and nine months since their arrest and throughout the trial proceedings. The court found the parents not guilty because of ‘‘reasonable doubt’’ that they conspired and committed the violence that caused the death of their second son. Beamon and Curtis were indicted on suspicion of causing the death of their son at their apartment in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward in October 1994 by striking his back and buttocks with wooden sticks as a punishment. The parents, arrested in June 2000, admitted to the allegation at one point during the investigation but maintained their innocence during the trial. The prosecutors had been seeking a five-year prison term for Beamon and a four-year term for Curtis, arguing that only the defendants could have inflicted severe violence on their son. The trial started in September 2000 but the process was protracted because the defendants pointed to mistranslations by the interpreter several times and the verdict was delivered at the 95th hearing...more...
Other reports say that Beamon is from Saginaw while his wife was born in Korea. They have five other children who were taken into care and eventually sent back to the US. This from a 2001 Japan Times article:
"Beamon runs a martial arts school that, according to sources close to the U.S. Embassy, is believed to be engaged in religious practices, promoting isolation in a regimented, commune-style environment and favoring global rule by black Muslims. During Monday's hearing, Beamon said that the charges against him were a "conspiracy" to punish a man that has attracted Japanese members to his group."
There are more details in another 2001 report from the Japan Times here