Dad arrested for beating 12-year-old daughter (Bartlesville, Oklahoma)

Dad DAVID GLENN SULLIVAN has been arrested for abusing his 12-year-old daughter, who had extensive bruising on her legs and arms. Seems Daddy took a foam baseball training bat to her. No mention of a mother at all. Single dad?

http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/articles/2010/04/09/news/news828.txt

Man arrested on alleged abuse of girl
By Tim Hudson E-E County Reporter
Friday, April 9, 2010 11:11 AM CDT

A Bartlesville man is free on $15,000 bond after his arrest Wednesday for the alleged abuse of a 12-year-old girl.

David Glenn Sullivan, 54, faces a single charge of child abuse as a result of the incident.

According to the case’s probable cause affidavit, the case began around 10:45 a.m. April 7 when police received a report from a local middle school that a student had bruises on her arms and legs and that they came from her father hitting her with a bat.

Teachers reported to police that they had noticed that in the past month, the victim had gone from a “smiling happy child” to a “withdrawn person.”

School officials said the girl told them that her father had become angry with her after he received an e-mail from the school and “spanked her with a foam baseball bat” the night before. They further told police that “she was in a lot of pain and was having a hard time moving around.”

When police interviewed the girl she said that after her father became angry with her he took her into the garage and got a green foam baseball bat and began hitting her.

She said that she couldn’t remember how many times he hit her but “that it was approximately an hour’s worth.” She added that he would hit her several times and then sit down, re-reading the e-mail on his phone, before hitting her again. She said this continued several times until the bat broke. She said that he then went outside “to look for something wooden but apparently did not find what he was looking for because he did not hit her any further.”

Authorities say the girl had a bruise on her left arm that was two inches long and 3/4 of an inch thick with a smaller bruise above it. On her right arm was an oval bruise three inches long and two inches wide. On both her legs were “two large areas of bruises” including bruising on the right leg from the hip to the knee. Police say that there was a large concentration of bruises above the knee and that it was “almost continuous.”

When police went to interview Glenn and asked if he knew why they were they, Glenn said “because of the bruises that were on (the victim) that he had put there yesterday.”

He told police a story similar to what the girl had told police but added that “maybe she might bruise easily because he had used it on the boys in the past and they had not bruised.”

When police examined the bat they found that it was a foam training bat that was “foam outside with a hard plastic center” and that it was “partly broken in half at the handle.” Glenn said that the victim was moving around and that “he had not gotten her bottom.” When asked about the bruising on her arms, Glenn said that she had gotten her hands in the way and he “tapped” her arms so she would move them.”

He further said he was sorry for leaving the bruises but that he had “run out of disciplinary options.”