BEDFORD – Scott Blattert, of Springville, is facing felony charges of aggravated battery when the assault possesses a substantial risk of death, strangulation, three counts of domestic battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, and five counts of domestic battery with bodily injury on a person under the age of 14.
He testified in Lawrence County Superior Court I Monday afternoon. Judge John Plummer III is presiding.
In a video recorded by the couple’s oldest daughter, Blattert is seen smacking the child with a belt 27 times, slamming her face down into the couch cushion, telling her “You are a rebellious, wicked animal” and then slamming his elbow into the back of the child’s neck and strangling her.
Scott testified that in 2019 his wife Cherry Blattert was becoming more and more “grieved” because the older children were “stirring up trouble and unrest and were disobeying instruction and rebelling in it”.
Scott would have his wife write down or tell him the who, what, where, when, and how each incident happened.
“The first step is to understand the problem,” he said. “I needed more than my wife was just unhappy. I needed to know how they didn’t comply.”
He described the problem, “It was like a dripping faucet”.
Scott testified about the spanking of his second-oldest daughter on September 23, 2019.
He said when he got home from work he was met by his wife who was “distraught and fearful.”
“She went through a list of things that had happened that day,” he added. “Their resistance to religious instruction and their haughty spirit. The children were refusing to comply with instruction and causing their mother grief.”
During the spanking with the glue stick, Scott said his daughter said “This is the end”.
“I had to remind her I was the authority,” he added. “While spanking her with the glue stick (the child) stood up and got in my face. She was showing contempt and disobedience so I administered increased corrective action the glue stick was not effective. The effect was not achieving the desired results.”
Scott denied elbow sticking his daughter in the neck. He said he hit her between the shoulder blades and he never strangled her.
After the incident, the child wanted to call 911 and report the incident. However, Scott prevented her from doing so.
He testified he was “being tricky and blocked the phone preventing her from calling.”
“As I sit here today, and look back I do think it (the spanking with the belt) went too far,” he said. “I wish I had done something different.”
Scott also admitted to kicking his oldest child in the shin when she was tormenting the family’s pet snapping turtle.
“I wanted her to cut it out,” he added.
Scott admitted that when the Department of Child Services came to the house on October 30th and left their card because no one was home he did go search for the video his daughter recorded of the beating but could not find it. He told the jury he probably would have destroyed it if he had found it.
He also admitted to injuring one of his younger daughters during prayer time.
He admitted the children were to call to have their heads bowed and eyes closed and the 3-year-old had been jumping on the couch. He reached over and went to spank her butt and knocked her off the couch She injured her head when she landed on some Lego blocks causing an abrasion and her to bleed. However, his two oldest daughters testified that their father had smashed the child’s head onto the floor causing the injury.
Judge John Plummer III, denied Blattert’s use of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as an alibi defense. An Indiana appeals court agreed and struck down Bkattert’s appeal saying he could not use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a legal defense against criminal charges of child abuse.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a 1993 United States federal law that “ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected. Based on the compelling interest in protecting the welfare of children, the court conclude that its prohibition against the use of corporal punishment outweighs the burden on the right to employ physical discipline in accordance with parent’s religious beliefs.
Tuesday at 10 a.m. the jury will hear closing arguments and then jury instructions and will begin deliberating.
