Custodial dad, step charged with battering teenage daughter (Broken Arrow, Oklahoma)

What happened to the mother of these kids? Why has her existence been erased from the story? Is she deceased? If so, from natural causes? Has she "disappeared"? Did Daddy smear her in family court and assume custody the legal way? What?

Why does a father with (what look like) a pronounced drug/alcohol problem apparently have custody? Not to mention Daddy's rage-aholic and violence issues. Who allowed him to assume possession/access to these kids? (Dollars to donuts, he beat Mom in a similar way--but nobody in the legal system would protect the kids.)

Once again, whenever you have an abuser dad like this who apparently has custody, you have to wonder about the circumstances behind it and who made the decisions that allowed this thug to have, an minimum, unsupervised access.

Dad is identified as TIMOTHY WAYNE LONG.

http://www.newson6.com/story/25491876/broken-arrow-couple-jailed-on-felony-child-abuse-complaints

Broken Arrow Couple Jailed On Felony Child Abuse Complaints

Posted: May 12, 2014 11:07 AM EDT
Updated: May 12, 2014 11:07 AM EDT

Dee Duren, NewsOn6.com

BROKEN ARROW, Oklahoma - A Broken Arrow couple was arrested on felony child abuse complaints after police say they physically battered a teenage girl in their care.

Timothy Wayne Long is the biological father of the victim while his wife Victoria Joy Long is her stepmother, according to an arrest report.

Police say they were called to the couple's apartment late Saturday night after neighbors reported a loud disturbance in the 500 block of North 9th Street. One neighbor said she heard a female screaming for five to 10 minutes and the sound of someone being thrown against a wall, according to an arrest report.

Another neighbor told police they saw the girl try to escape from the front door of the apartment. The witness said Victoria Long, 30, pulled her back into the apartment while both adults slapped and punched the child while the front door was still open.

Police interviewed the juvenile and her brother. Both teens said their father had been drinking and taking his prescription Xanax before getting angry with the 17-year-old boy for not paying his share of the household expenses.

The girl told police that during the argument with the brother, her stepmother "became enraged" with her and "slammed her head into the west wall while pushing her to the floor of the apartment." The girl said her father held the door to the brother's room closed so the older teen could not intervene, the report states.

Both adults reportedly used "closed fist handed slaps on her arms, legs and back," the arresting officer said in his report.

The teen said she tried to run out the front door, but Victoria Long pulled her back inside the apartment by her hair. The girl eventually left the apartment through the back kitchen door.

Police say the girl had marks and handprints on her arms, shoulders and back "consistent with being slapped and punched numerous times." The arresting officer said that Timothy Long, 42, stated he was disciplining his daughter but that the evidence showed the couple used a "higher level of physical force than necessary."

The children were taken to a shelter while the adults are each being held on a $50,000 bond for felony child abuse.