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Last updated on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
(SOLSBERRY) - Police allege a rural Greene County man battered a 3-year-old boy who did not want to go on a family fishing outing in late May.
Police allege a rural Greene County man battered a 3-year-old boy who did not want to go on a family fishing outing in late May.
Nick Schneider, of the Greene County Daily World reports, Palepoa Tofilau, 34, of Hash Lane in rural Solsberry, was arrested Monday by Greene County Sheriff's Department Deputy James O'Malley on a warrant charging him with battery resulting in injury with the victim less than 14 years of age and the defendant at least 18 -- a class D felony.
Bond set at $4,000.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed in Greene Circuit Court, county police responded to a complaint from the young boy's mother.
She said the boy wanted to stay at home and play on the swing set, after Tofilau had instructed him to get into the vehicle.
After the boy refused the second time, Tofilau allegedly grabbed the youngster by the hair and walked him over to the waiting vehicle.
Once inside the vehicle, Tofilau began smacking the boy across the face numerous times, the mother told police.
"(The mother) said that Tofilau took off all of (the boy's) clothes and began smacking him on the 'butt' several times. (The mother) said that after this Tofilau gave (the boy) a kiss and told him he loved him," O'Malley wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
The incident allegedly took place in front of other children.
The boy suffered swelling and redness to his face and also bruising up to his hairline on the left side of his face. There was redness and swelling on the boy's bottom, according to O'Malley.
Tofilau did admit to a Child Protective Services investigator that he did hit the boy, saying he had been under a lot of stress, but stated, "It is not an excuse to leave bruises ...," according to court records.
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