Dad arrested after 9-year-old daughter scalded by hot bath (New Orleans, Louisiana)

Dad is identified as VINCENT COOPER. No mention of a mother in the home. Is there one?

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/02/father_arrested_after_9-year-o.html

Father arrested after 9-year-old daughter scalded by hot bath

Vincent Cooper, 53, faces a charge of second-degree cruelty to juveniles after police said he ordered his 9-year-old daughter into bathwater so hot it left second-degree burns.

Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on February 05, 2014 at 2:41 PM

A New Orleans man is facing a child-abuse charge after police said he ordered his 9-year-old daughter into bathwater so hot it left second-degree burns on her feet, back and genitals.

Vincent Cooper Jr., 53, appeared in court Wednesday (Feb. 5) to face a charge of second-degree cruelty to juveniles, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in state prison.

According to police, Cooper prepared bathwater for his daughter after she finished homework Monday night at their home in the 6400 block of N. Derbigny St. in the Lower 9th Ward.

Police said the girl said the water was too hot, but that he ordered her into the tub anyway. When he saw her still standing in the tub, police said, Cooper demanded the girl sit and then bathed her before returning to his bedroom. Police said the girl came to Cooper afterward, complaining that she had painful "bumps" on her feet, but was ordered to go to bed. Cooper told police after his arrest that he looked at the girl's feet after the bath but saw only tiny bumps he described as possible ant bites.

Shortly after the girl arrived at her school Tuesday morning, police said staff members noted severe burns and blisters on the girl's feet. The girl was taken to Children's Hospital for treatment, and a detective from NOPD's Child Abuse Unit was called to investigate.

Doctors told the detective that the girl had suffered second-degree burns to both feet, as well as burns to her back and genitals. The girl was transferred into the care of the hospital's surgical team for treatment, the police report said.

Cooper, who works as a shuttle-bus driver, was assigned a public defender when he made an initial court appearance. Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell Jr. set bond at $30,000 and ordered Cooper to have no contact with his daughter. The defense attorney argued that the severity of the charge was "almost absurd," but Cantrell strongly disagreed.

"I think these allegations are absurd, too" the judge said. "I don't think a $30,000 bond is excessive."