Concerning Charges

[AbigailH]

My question involves child abuse or neglect in the State of: North Carolina

My daughter (who is 3) came back from her dads with bruises from a belt all on her legs. I called CPS and she is not aloud to have contact with him until they say otherwise and they are now investigating this.

Law enforcement is also involved and said that most likely they will charge him with assault of a minor.
Since he is already a felon how badly will this hurt him?
I want to know the chances of him going to jail for this...
Does anyone think he could lose custody?

[Dogmatique]

1. Nobody can guess

2. Nobody can guess

3. Nobody can guess

Honestly Mom - there aren't anywhere near enough details. And much will depend on the result of the CPS and police investigation.

[AbigailH]

Some details.
He has her 6 days a month, every other weekend and seems to not even want that.

He claims she didnt want to go to bed so he took a belt and "spanked" her.
She came back the next day with bruises on the back and inside of her legs. Within 24 hours they were black and blue. One of them is 5 inches wide and 6 inches long. On top of this she had a UTI and was currently being treated for it when this happened.

Called CPS immediately, the CPS worker told me to take her to the ER and make sure she was okay. So i did, they had a forensics person come in, asked me and my daughter questions, took X rays, and took pictures.
Next morning CPS worker came to our house and talked more with us and took more pictures.
Next day went back to the ER for them to take pictures for a third time cause more had appeared.

Background on the father.
Felon - possession of illegal drugs and intent to sell

Big partier, drinks and smokes pot.
lives with sister, her boyfriend and 5 kids in a doublewide.
All 3 adults smoke in the house although my daughter has respiratory problems and doctors have made it clear that it is bad to her health.

This is the first incident involving physical abuse.

She is now scared of her father, has barely ate since sunday, her behavior has changed drastically, she is more clingy, has nightmares, she is just not the same right now.

[aardvarc]

Felon - possession of illegal drugs and intent to sell

Being a convicted felon for a drug charge isn't likely to factor in since (a) it's not a crime of violence, and (b) he was already awarded visitation with the felony conviction in place.

Big partier

Not illegal, and not relevant.

drinks

Not illegal, and not relevant unless he gets caught driving drunk with the child in the car.

and smokes pot.

Not legal, but in the big picture not likely to concern the court. What the court cares about is whether the activity, whether legal or not, places the child in danger, and other than maybe woofing down extra Doritos, pot smoking generally isn't in and of itself a factor in visitation.

lives with sister, her boyfriend and 5 kids in a doublewide.

As long as the child has adequate shelter, food, cleanliness (ie not roaches and rats running around, etc.) when visiting there, irrelevant.

This is the first incident involving physical abuse.

THIS is where the focus should be. It's really going to come down to whether the various professionals in CPS and law enforcement determine that the incident meets the threshold for a criminal charge of child abuse, or whether they deem that it's a case of over-disciplining, not knowing own strength, etc. If it's the first, the consequences for dad will go down one path, which may include incarceration, and if the other, the path will likely include parenting classes, anger management or other therapy as might be ordered by the court and of course BOTH cases are possible at the same time. In either case, it's absolutely appropriate for you to seek an emergency order stopping visitation, if CPS hasn't already initiated such an order of their own. And regardless of which path the criminal justice and CPS cases take, you can and should absolutely request that any future visitation (assuming dad's not in jail) to be supervised given the nature and extent of injury inflicted by dad in the name of "discipline".

If CPS hasn't already made a recommendation, it's also not too early to get some assistance for the child from a qualified pediatric therapist, as the violent incident and the resulting emotional trauma can have long term effects for the victim, no matter what happens with dad or if the child never sees him again - she's now at major risk for serious emotional development issues and the sooner those issues can be addressed the more the long term damage can be minimized.