Two charged with burning boy
Father, girlfriend scalded son, left him untreated for 2 weeks, police say
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Alayna DeMartini
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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For punishment, the 7-year-old was placed in a tub of scalding water. Now he lies in a hospital bed with bandaged feet and a diaper covering burns on his bottom.
He can’t walk.
The boy’s father, Charles Todd, and Todd’s girlfriend, Janelle Alexander, are charged with causing the third-degree burns and for leaving them untreated for two weeks, police said.
On Jan. 27, Alexander held Dominique Todd, 7, in the tub after she ordered Dominique’s sister, Gabrielle, 9, to fill it with water "as hot as she could stand it," according to a Columbus police report.
"When Dominique was allowed to get out of the tub, his skin started peeling off of his legs, feet and buttocks area," the report says.
Todd was home when the scalding occurred at 2899 E. 11 th Ave., the East Side home where Todd and Alexander live.
Just before the scalding about 8 p.m., Dominique had asked for something else to eat, said his mother, Shawn Tucker, who does not have custody of her son. She said that’s why he was punished.
Todd, 32, and Alexander, 23, were arrested Saturday night after a babysitter called 911.
Yesterday, a Franklin County Municipal Court judge set $750,000 bonds on Alexander and Todd. The two remained in jail, each charged with felonious assault and felonious child endangering.
Dominique was in so much pain for two weeks that he had to crawl instead of walk around his father’s house, his mother, said yesterday after the court hearing.
"He didn’t deserve this," she said.
An emergency-room doctor at Children’s Hospital who examined Dominique later told police that his feet might need to be amputated.
Third-degree burns on the feet can cause permanent loss of sensation in areas healed by skin grafts, said Dr. Sidney Miller, director of the burn unit at Ohio State University Medical Center. And that can keep a person from walking again, he said.
A delay in treating third-degree burns increases the risk of infection, Miller said.
Yesterday, Dominique remained in critical condition at Children’s Hospital. His feet and toes were black, Tucker said.
She said that when she visited him on Sunday, he told her, "Mommy, I can’t walk."
But after talking to doctors yesterday, Tucker said she’s optimistic that her son eventually will walk. His first surgery was yesterday and his next is Thursday, when a skin graft will be done, she said.
"I know my God is a healer," Tucker said.
She didn’t find out about the scalding until Saturday night, when a relative of the children’s babysitter stopped by her house.
She said she hadn’t seen her children in recent weeks. Dominique, Gabrielle and their brother, Charles, 10, have been living with their father since he and Tucker were divorced in 2001, she said.
"I’m ashamed of him," Tucker said of Todd. "We had those kids together and I thought he loved them."
The children are now in the custody of Franklin County Children Services.
John Saros, director of Children Services, said the agency has been contacted about the family six times in the past five years. He would not discuss the nature of the allegations.
Last year, Children Services referred Todd and Alexander to an agency for parenting classes, he said. The agency has no record of whether the two went.
[email protected]
Father, girlfriend scalded son, left him untreated for 2 weeks, police say
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Alayna DeMartini
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
For punishment, the 7-year-old was placed in a tub of scalding water. Now he lies in a hospital bed with bandaged feet and a diaper covering burns on his bottom.
He can’t walk.
The boy’s father, Charles Todd, and Todd’s girlfriend, Janelle Alexander, are charged with causing the third-degree burns and for leaving them untreated for two weeks, police said.
On Jan. 27, Alexander held Dominique Todd, 7, in the tub after she ordered Dominique’s sister, Gabrielle, 9, to fill it with water "as hot as she could stand it," according to a Columbus police report.
"When Dominique was allowed to get out of the tub, his skin started peeling off of his legs, feet and buttocks area," the report says.
Todd was home when the scalding occurred at 2899 E. 11 th Ave., the East Side home where Todd and Alexander live.
Just before the scalding about 8 p.m., Dominique had asked for something else to eat, said his mother, Shawn Tucker, who does not have custody of her son. She said that’s why he was punished.
Todd, 32, and Alexander, 23, were arrested Saturday night after a babysitter called 911.
Yesterday, a Franklin County Municipal Court judge set $750,000 bonds on Alexander and Todd. The two remained in jail, each charged with felonious assault and felonious child endangering.
Dominique was in so much pain for two weeks that he had to crawl instead of walk around his father’s house, his mother, said yesterday after the court hearing.
"He didn’t deserve this," she said.
An emergency-room doctor at Children’s Hospital who examined Dominique later told police that his feet might need to be amputated.
Third-degree burns on the feet can cause permanent loss of sensation in areas healed by skin grafts, said Dr. Sidney Miller, director of the burn unit at Ohio State University Medical Center. And that can keep a person from walking again, he said.
A delay in treating third-degree burns increases the risk of infection, Miller said.
Yesterday, Dominique remained in critical condition at Children’s Hospital. His feet and toes were black, Tucker said.
She said that when she visited him on Sunday, he told her, "Mommy, I can’t walk."
But after talking to doctors yesterday, Tucker said she’s optimistic that her son eventually will walk. His first surgery was yesterday and his next is Thursday, when a skin graft will be done, she said.
"I know my God is a healer," Tucker said.
She didn’t find out about the scalding until Saturday night, when a relative of the children’s babysitter stopped by her house.
She said she hadn’t seen her children in recent weeks. Dominique, Gabrielle and their brother, Charles, 10, have been living with their father since he and Tucker were divorced in 2001, she said.
"I’m ashamed of him," Tucker said of Todd. "We had those kids together and I thought he loved them."
The children are now in the custody of Franklin County Children Services.
John Saros, director of Children Services, said the agency has been contacted about the family six times in the past five years. He would not discuss the nature of the allegations.
Last year, Children Services referred Todd and Alexander to an agency for parenting classes, he said. The agency has no record of whether the two went.
[email protected]
