The Spring Hill man faces felony child abuse charges after a teacher noticed strange bruises on the child.
By Times Staff Writer
Published August 30, 2003
SPRING HILL - A 35-year-old Spring Hill man was arrested after he was accused of severely beating his 5-year-old son and holding his head underwater because the kindergartener brought home a bad note from school, authorities said.
The Hernando County Sheriff's Office began investigating the alleged abuse when the boy's Spring Hill Elementary kindergarten teacher noticed strange marks on his body and sent him to the nurse's office on Aug. 22.
School nurse Marilyn Mueller told investigators that the red bruises appeared to be made by a belt buckle, a sheriff's report stated.
The boy had told the nurse that his parents had spanked him the previous night because he took home a note from his teacher.
According to a sheriff's report, the boy said his parents took him into a bedroom where they asked him to pull down his pants and lay face down on a bed. After the father spanked the boy four or five times with a black leather belt, he told him to take a bath, the report said.
The boy alleged that when he was in the bathroom, his father held his head underwater three different times.
The father has denied the allegations, saying that he never asked his son to disrobe and never held his head underwater. He told investigators he punished the boy for misbehaving in school and explained that the bruises on his son's body were caused when the boy tried to protect himself from being hit.
The man, whose name is being withheld by authorities to protect the victim's identity, was charged with felony child abuse and was being held at Hernando County Jail on $5,000 bail Friday.
