Raton Couple Charged With Child Abuse
By ABQ News Staff on Tue, Aug 2, 2011
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A Raton man and woman were each charged last week with child abuse after the man allegedly punished the couple’s two young boys by hitting them with a wooden stick and a plastic “sword” with so much force that the boys, ages 3 and 6, were left with extensive bruising on their backs, buttocks and legs, The Raton Range reported.
Jeffrey Mullis, 27, and Coreen Childers, 26, each are facing two counts of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and two counts of child abuse related to cruel punishment, The Range said.
Childers is the biological mother of both boys, and Mullis is the biological father of the 6-year-old boy, according to a police affidavit filed in the case.
Police were called to investigate when the biological father of the 3-year-old brought the boys to Miners’ Colfax Medical Center on April 24 after discovering the bruises on the boys during a regular change in custodial visits, The Range said.
The boys, according to the police affidavit, told officers that their mother was usually present during the alleged beatings by Mullis but didn’t intervene, the paper reported.
Childers was arrested last week, a day after charges were filed against the couple in Springer Magistrate Court and was being held at the Vigil-Maldonado Detention Center on a $50,000 cash-only bond, The Range said.
Childers told police that she had not seen Mullis since the boys had been taken to the hospital, and Mullis remains at large despite police attempts to contact him, the affidavit said.
According to police, Childers told the state Children Youth and Families Department and police officers that she was the one who struck the boys, but police believe Childers was “covering for Mullis,” The Range said.
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