Prosecutors have dismissed assault charges against a Las Vegas man who made news earlier this year when he won a court battle to adopt his 2-year-old grandson over the objections of the child’s father.
Bill Dwayne Wheeler, 47, had been charged with third-degree assault of a child, a felony, and fourth-degree assault, a gross misdemeanor, for incidents involving two Snohomish children ages 10 and 12.
Deputy prosecutor Kathy Jo Kristof asked for dismissal of the Snohomish County Superior Court charges for lack of evidence.
“The children recanted and there was not enough evidence to go forward at this time,” Kristof said Friday.
The charges were dropped “without prejudice,” she said, meaning that she could file them again if the state gets more evidence.
She alleged in court papers that Wheeler punished the children by slapping them in the face, whipping them with a belt and making them chew on soap.
The charges were filed in early April, about a week after a bitter court battle between Wheeler and his 20-year-old son, an Air Force police officer, who went to court trying to gain custody of his 2-year-old son.
That court battle was waged in Lincoln County in Eastern Washington, where the younger Wheeler alleged that somebody forged his name on court papers allowing his father to adopt the boy. A judge ruled that the younger Wheeler didn’t prove the signature was a fraud.
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