Three sisters, two of them fighting back tears, told a Cook County Circuit Court judge Wednesday of the pain they faced as their stepfather sexually abused them and the pain they live with now because their mother still supports him.
The sisters, ages 18, 19 and 21, testified at a hearing regarding Jessie Beeson, 37, formerly of 2336 W. Roscoe St. Beeson pleaded guilty at the hearing to more than 40 counts of sexually assaulting and abusing his stepdaughters between 1978 and 1992.
“I grew up with a secret,” said the eldest daughter, now 21. “It was a secret that caused me so much pain and shame that it is still hard for me to talk about it today. I also found myself having to deal with the fact that my mother has made the choice to forgive and support my stepfather instead of me.”
She and her sisters sat on the left side of the courtroom of Judge Earl Strayhorn, where the hearing was conducted, while their mother sat on the right. Beeson is expected to receive a 20-year term for the attacks on each stepdaughter, but the sentences are expected to run concurrently, prosecutor Aidan O’Connor said.
Beeson, who was released from the County Jail early last year when his wife posted 10 percent of his $30,000 bond, fled the jurisdiction and remained free until a relative saw him featured on the television crime series “America’s Most Wanted.”
He showed no emotion as his stepdaughters asked Strayhorn to sentence him to 60-year terms.
They described sexual abuse that began when they were 4 or 5 years old. The eldest described the pain of being unable to protect her younger siblings. The middle sister described how her mother made her serve Beeson coffee in bed on Christmas Day and have sex with him.
O’Connor said the mother never was charged. O’Connor said the girls told their mother what was happening and she did not believe them. O’Connor said she later apparently forgave him.
The matter came to attention in another state when one of the sisters told a coach what was happening, O’Connor said. The minors were removed from the guardianship of their mother and placed in foster homes.
“I just can’t bring myself to accept her as part of my life,” the eldest daughter said of her mother. “The first step in rebuilding my life is that I’m in the process of changing my name to my natural father’s name.”
Beeson is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25.
