A Beaver County couple faces a preliminary hearing next month on charges that the woman's daughters had been assaulted routinely with a stun gun last month.

Michele Lee Hopkins is charged with child endangerment, possession of a prohibited offensive weapon and disorderly conduct.

Jeffrey Alan Young is charged with the same counts as well as use of an electronic incapacitation device and reckless endangerment.

Their hearing is scheduled at 9 a.m. Sept. 11 in Beaver County Central Court.

Bridgewater Police Chief Douglas Adams said a neighbor in the 200 block of Washington Street three weeks ago called to report that 11-year-old Abigail Hopkins was outside with a stun gun. The neighbor said the girl's babysitter took the weapon away and escorted the girl to their home on Market Street.

The neighbor reported that she had observed incidents involving the girls with the stun gun between July 28 and 30.

Chief Douglas went the home of the sitter, Samantha Stewart, who said the girl's mother kept the device on their family's refrigerator. The girl and her sister, Gabrielle, 9, retrieved the stun gun from time to time.

The younger girl told police that her mother's friend, Mr. Young of Beaver, had used the weapon on her to get her to "calm down and not act up," according to a police affidavit.

Abigail then told the chief that her mother threatened to use the stun gun on her and her sister to keep them in line or to make them do their chores.

Neither of the girls has been seriously injured by the gun, police said.

The girls' father, Matthew Hopkins, who does not live with them, escorted the girls July 30 to the police station, where the chief took statements from all three.

Gabrielle told police that Mr. Young last used the stun gun on her on July 29. She said her mother knew about the incident but did nothing about it.

Both girls said their mother never used the weapon to stun them. But, they said, she frequently threatened to do so, scaring them into compliance.

Mr. Hopkins told police that Mr. Young telephoned him to admit having shocked Gabrielle, and he apologized, the affidavit said.

Mrs. Hopkins later told police that she eventually learned that Mr. Young had used the stun gun but that she had been asleep at the time of the incident.

The girls said their mother had used handcuffs to bind her children together because they misbehaved.