Jonathan "Wake" Quinn was the 24 year old boyfriend of a previous friend of mine. They had a daughter very close to my son's age, and the children were together almost every day since they were 4 months old. Wake left his girlfriend while she was pregnant, and failed to keep contact or pay child support. When his daughter was appx. One year old, he came back. He seemed to have his act together, and seemed good with the children. I provided free childcare for their daughter, and in exchange, they would watch my son, on occasion.
March 14th I left my son in their care for an overnight stay with their daughter, per THEIR request. They said that their daughter wanted to have him around to play, and that I deserved a night out. (My husband is a sailor, and is often overseas, so I only get a night out every 4 weeks or so)
March 15th, I drove to Wake's house to pick my son up at 10:00am. When I entered the house, my son ran to the door and started beating on it saying "home, mommy". At that point, Wake said "show mom your boo-boo". My son is a climber, so I asked "what did he fall off of, now?" I kneeled down to get a better look, and pushing my sons hair off of his forehead, I found a large, bruised goose egg. His left eyebrow was bruise and starting to swell, and the lid was swollen shut by the next morning. There were handprint shaped bruises on each cheek as well as broke capillaries all over his face.
Wake looked down at me with a smug grin and said "He didn't fall, he was peeling stickers off of (his daughter's-name withheld) rocking horse, and I had to teach him not to."
By studying the bruises and the rocking horse, it appears he repeatedly slammed my son face-first into that rocking horse. Wake said that he was spanking my son and that he "fell and hit his head". Did I mention that I had previously set a firm rule that Wake was NOT to use violence as a means of discipline on my son?
I took my son staight home, despite my urge to cut Wake's throat, and called the police. The authorities, of course, took their sweet time, and it took four days for them to arrest him. Despite the fact that I gave them the address, and directions to, his house (1/2 mile from my house) and his place of work (he paints houses, by the way). His father bailed him out immediately, and I had to appear in court three times to finally get a conviction. The problem is, in the state of North Carolina, beating a 2 year old baby is only a misdemeanor. He got off with probation and fines. His girlfriend left him eight months later. Her friends say that he tried to stab her, and supposedly there are cut scars on her chest. I cannot confirm this report, but I wouldn't be surprised.
I have searched the internet and made numerous phone calls to find an advocacy group that handles victims of violence from childcare givers. All searches just return thousands of sites concerning sexual abuse and domestic violence only involving family members. If anyone has any info on a group that would be helpful, please post it.
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