Dad charged with battery, false imprisonment for assault on mom, four kids (Escampia County, Florida)

Whether Dad JUSTIN WADE POTTS worked for the Florida Department of Agriculture or at the dog pound is really irrelevant to this story. What this really illustrates is how a narcissistic, violent father reacts when he "loses control" (i.e. his wife finally asks for a divorce). So he attacks her, then chokes and slaps the kids. And there are still among us who ask why she just doesn't leave that guy....

But kudos to reporter Jamie Secola for doing her homework. We do find that Dad has a rapsheet related to domestic violence offences going all the way back to 1996. So why has he not been jailed before now? It's not because he's the son of an ex-police chief, is it?

http://www.pnj.com/article/20110630/NEWS01/106300306/Ag-official-charged-abuse?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

Ag official charged with abuse
Children say their dad choked them

7:53 AM, Jun. 30, 2011

Written by Jamie Secola

Florida Department of Agriculture officer Justin Wade Potts was arrested this week on child abuse charges after Escambia Sheriff's deputies interviewed his four minor children.

Potts, the son of late Pensacola Police Chief Jerry Potts, also faces two counts of battery and one count of false imprisonment; his wife, Carlie Potts, accused him of attacking her on June 6 while they argued about her wanting a divorce.

Potts, 35, is charged with four felony counts of child abuse and two felony counts of domestic battery by strangulation. He was in the Escambia County Jail Wednesday on $750,000 bond.

According to a Sheriff's Office report, the Potts children told Deputy Jeremy Jarman about several instances of their father choking, slapping, poking and screaming at them. The report also describes instances where Potts choked at least two of his three sons.

During one of those instances, Potts grabbed one of his sons by the throat and lifted him off the ground "while yelling and cussing at him." Potts took another son by the throat and held him under the shower. Another son nearly passed out after Potts straddled the child while he was lying in bed and pressed his forearm to the child's throat.

His daughter said in the report that Potts threatened, " ... If you say anything to your mom, you're gonna be picking yourself up off the ground and you're gonna really have a reason to call (the Department of Children and Families)."

According to the Escambia County Clerk of Courts website, Potts has had issues with domestic violence since 1996.

In the June 6 incident Carlie Potts said that Justin Potts threw her to the floor, shoved her in a closet, sat on her stomach and shoved a pair of shorts into her mouth. His next court appearance on those charges is before Judge Ronald Swanson at 9 a.m. Friday.