Dad charged with beating 3 kids, throwing infant (Monterey, California)

Dad MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ is charged with aggravated assault. Sounds pretty much like worthless trash.

http://www.herald-citizen.com/view/full_story/17009886/article-Monterey-man-charged-with-child-abuse?instance=homesecondleft
Monterey man charged with child abuse

by Mary Jo Denton Herald Citizen

MONTEREY -- A man who allegedly beat his three children and threw his baby on the floor was arrested yesterday after Putnam Sheriff's Deputy Barbie Cook made an investigation.

Michael J. Martinez, 34, of Penhook Road, Monterey, is charged with child abuse and aggravated assault in the case.

Deputy Cook filed a report on the case, but the report was not released today. Court documents outline the charges in the case.

According to warrants taken by Deputy Cook, who is the domestic violence officer for the Sheriff's Department, Martinez is charged with child abuse/neglect of his infant son for allegedly grabbing his wife while she was breast feeding the baby and "pulling her up off the couch and by his actions, making her almost drop the child."

His wife told the deputy that when Martinez himself was holding the baby, "if the baby was crying he would throw it to the floor."

In other warrants, Deputy Cook charged Martinez with aggravated assault for two alleged incidents: Martinez's wife told the deputy she had heard him "striking (his two children, a boy and a girl) with the belt over and over again."

She said she heard the boy "scream at his dad to get off his sister and said Martinez told him to shut up or he would be on him," one warrant says.

"She asked the two children what had happened in that room and they both told her their dad had informed both of them that they were not allowed to tell anyone," the warrant says. His wife and her mother "had to physically push (Martinez) off of the two children (that were trying to fight their father off) when he was trying to strike them with a belt consisting of huge metal pieces on it," the deputy's warrant says. Another warrant alleges that Martinez also picked up his seven-year-old son "by the neck and held him up against the hallway wall."

"She states that she screamed at him to let him go and he threw him into the living room floor," the warrant says.

"She states that on another occasion her and her mother took this child and two more children away from Michael Martinez for trying to strike them with a belt that had huge metal pieces on it."

Martinez was taken to the Putnam County jail, where his total bond was set at $22,500. He has a February 6 court date.