ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - An Alaska woman was convicted Tuesday of misdemeanor child abuse after squirting hot sauce into the mouth of her adopted Russian son as punishment in what prosecutors said was a ploy to get on the "Dr. Phil" TV show.
Prosecutors also said Jessica Beagley, 36, of Anchorage made the 7-year-old boy stand in a cold shower when he misbehaved.
In closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Cynthia Franklin said Beagley recorded the punishment on Oct. 21, 2010, for a segment of the show titled "Mommy Confessions."
Beagley's defense lawyer countered that she made the video and eventually went on the show because she was desperate to find help for her son, a Russian orphan with psychological and emotional problems.
Beagley was forced to use unconventional means of punishment because traditional methods didn't work, attorney William Ingaldson said.
The eight-minute video shows Beagley confronting the boy about misbehaving in school and lying, then pouring hot sauce into the crying child's mouth and not allowing him to spit it out for more than a minute.
The footage also shows Beagley forcing the screaming boy into a cold shower before sending him off to bed.
"There is no reason in the world why someone has to hurt a child to get on a reality show," Franklin said.
When the episode aired, it sparked public outrage in Russia, with some people demanding the boy and his twin brother, who were both adopted by Beagley and her husband, an Anchorage police officer, be returned to their native country.
Franklin told the jury it wasn't Beagley's first attempt to get on the "Dr. Phil" show.
After seeing a segment in April 2009 titled "Angry Moms," she contacted the show but heard nothing for a year and a half, Franklin said.
The show eventually called to find out if Beagley was still angry, she said.
Beagley then submitted audition videos in which she yelled at the boy, but producers said they needed to see her actually punishing her son, the prosecutor said.
That's when Beagley got the video camera ready, made sure there was enough hot sauce on the shelf in the bathroom and recruited her 10-year-old daughter to shoot the video, Franklin said. Days later, she was headed to Los Angeles to tape the show that first aired on Nov. 17, 2010.
A spokeswoman for the show, Stacey Luchs, declined to comment to the Associated Press after closing arguments Monday.