Dad accused of beating 20-year-old son for potty-training accident (Lake Highlands, Texas)

Dad is identified as WESLEY GARTH. Notice there is no mention of a mother in the home or anywhere else, though there is mention of a grandmother. What happened to the mom? Is this a single father? Did he have custody? As usual, lots of silence.

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/09/dallas-father-accused-of-popping-son-repeatedly-for-potty-training-accident.html/

Dallas father accused of ‘popping’ son repeatedly for potty-training accident

By Matt Peterson
2:42 pm on September 26, 2013
Staff writer Natalie Yezbick reports:

A Lake Highlands man has been arrested after police say he beat his 20-month-old son during potty-training.

Wesley Garth, 21, was taken into custody Tuesday on a third-degree felony charge of injury to a child, according to Dallas County records.

Garth admitted to police that he “popped” his son four or five times on the neck, twice on the thighs and twice on the rear when the the boy went to the bathroom in his diaper on July 9, court documents say. He also said he squeezed his son’s face when the child held food in his mouth.

The following day, the baby was in his grandmother’s care when she noticed bruises on his face, back and legs, the documents say. She contacted police, and the boy was taken to Medical City Hospital in Dallas and later referred to the clinic for at-risk children at Children’s Medical Center.

The child showed signs of muscle damage and physical abuse on his body and face, according to a pediatrician at UT Southwestern Medical School.

“The bruising is extensive and over multiple soft tissue surfaces of the body, which is caused by repeated blunt forces,” the doctor said in his medical assessment.

Garth was released Wednesday from the Dallas County Jail on $15,000 bail.