A 34-year-old Greenfield man has been charged with abusing his 6-year-old daughter on multiple occasions, including once because she accidently urinated in her pants and broke a pencil in school.
The man, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim, was charged with one count of physical abuse of a child in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of six years of imprisonment, $10,000 in fines or both.
According to the criminal complaint, Greenfield police responded to the family’s home May 23 after the child’s parents got into an argument over the father’s treatment of their daughter.
The child told an officer her father had struck her five times on the buttocks with a belt after school, causing her to cry and feel pain. She said her father had also hit her with a belt before school because she didn’t make it to the bathroom in time and urinated in her pants a little bit.
That day at school, the daughter told school officials she was afraid to go home because she thought her father would hurt her for misbehaving.
The daughter told police on other occasions her father hit her with a belt, and sometimes slapped her face, according to the criminal complaint. She described another incident to police in which she was taking a shower and the water became very hot, causing her to cry out. She told police her father grabbed her around the throat, pushed her into a wall and held her there until she stopped crying.
An officer noticed a red mark on the girl’s neck. The young girl also told police her father punched her in the stomach during the shower incident.
The father, when interviewed by police, said he was "fuming" the day of May 23 and spanked his daughter with his hand for breaking a pencil at school and peeing in her underwear. He denied hitting her with a belt.
He also could not explain the bruising around his daughter’s neck but said it could have happened when he grabbed his daughter and put her in the corner following the May 23 incident.
According to court documents, more charges may be issued as the investigation proceeds.
The father was scheduled to make his initial court appearance Wednesday.
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