Facebook site reveals different side of one suspect

Published 9:17 am Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The young women facing adult criminal charges connected to alleged abuse at Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea were active at Albert Lea High School but an Internet site shines a different light on the personality of one of the two women.

Brianna Marie Broitzman, 19, the first of the two adults charged in the case, is a former student at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City. According to the school, she no longer attends. She was a former member of the Albert Lea High School dance team, according to the ALHS 2008 yearbook.

Her Facebook.com page features photos of memorable high school experiences such as Homecoming, school football games, prom and graduation, but there were also pictures of Broitzman and her friends with beer and pizza and bumper stickers about drinking and sex.

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On the Web site, she could be seen in photographs with friends playing what they called “Pin the Junk on the Hunk,” similar to pin the tail on the donkey but with male genitalia.

Ashton Larson, 18, the second of the two adults charged in the case was a sports anchor for many of Albert Lea High School’s “Tiger Vision” shows, according to the yearbook.

The two were indicted Monday for charges ranging from mandated failure to report suspected abuse to criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult and assault in the fifth degree.

Broitzman has been charged with three counts of assault in the fifth degree of a caregiver to a vulnerable adult, three counts of criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult, three counts of criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, one instance of disorderly conduct by a caregiver, and one instance of mandated reporter failure to report.

Larson has been charged with two counts of assault in the fifth degree of a caregiver to a vulnerable adult, one count of criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult, four counts of criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, two counts of disorderly conduct by a caregiver and one count of mandated reporter failure to report.

The charges were filed by the Freeborn County Attorney’s Office. They are based on an investigation by the Albert Lea Police Department and the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office that stemmed from abuse allegations earlier this year.