By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man was charged this week with having abused the five-year-old daughter of his girlfriend on June 29 at her then-residence in rural Payne County.
Colton Levi Farris, 24, was accused of “whipping the child with a board in an aggressive and excessive manner resulting in substantial bruising over the child’s body,” court records show.
Farris was released on $5,000 bond Wednesday on the felony child abuse charge, court records show.
The alleged abuse was discovered by the child’s grandmother, an affidavit filed Wednesday by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown said.
The child’s mother “had recently moved her boyfriend (Colton Farris) into the residence with her,” which was a house on the child’s grandparents’ property, an affidavit alleged.
On June 29, the child’s grandmother was playing with the 5-year-old when she noticed bruising to the backside of the child’s lower back, an affidavit alleged.
When the grandmother pulled the child’s pants down, she found “what she considered to be significant bruising” that she photographed with her phone, the affidavit alleged.
Questioned by her grandparents about her injuries, the child “indicated that Colton Farris had been spanking her,” the affidavit alleged.
The child’s grandfather confronted Farris, along with the child’s mother, about the injuries and ordered them both to leave the property, the affidavit alleged.
The child’s grandparents are the legal guardians of the 5-year-old, the affidavit said.
While the child’s grandfather was at the house provided to the child’s mother, “he located two pieces of wood on the top of the refrigerator; one piece of wood appeared to be a wooden stake that had (the child’s) name written on it, the other piece of wood was a 1×6 inch board with a handle cut into it,” the affidavit alleged.
On July 16, the sheriff’s investigator observed a forensic interview of the 5-year-old at the Saville Center in Stillwater, the affidavit said.
The child said, “her mom and dad had been spanking her and hurting her. (She) said they used ‘a belt, hand, and wood,” the affidavit alleged.
The child said, “Colton always spanked her on the buttocks, and the spanking always happened at her home. (She) said whenever she was hit with the board that it was on her bare buttocks because Farris would always make her pull her pants and underwear down before being spanked,” the affidavit alleged.
During an interview with the state Department of Human Services, “Farris stated that he did spank (the child), but never with her pants pulled down. Farris said he stopped spanking (the child) after (her mother) told him that he had left bruises,” the affidavit alleged.
The day after the child was interviewed at the Saville Center, the child’s grandfather obtained emergency protective orders against Farris and also the child’s mother on behalf of the 5-year-old and another child, court records show.
According to the affidavit, Farris is 6’2″ tall and weighs 250 pounds.
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