LYNNWOOD — Bail was kept at $50,000 Monday for a Lynnwood man arrested for investigation of slapping a 4-year-old girl and burning her with a cigarette.
A Lynnwood day care worker on July 29 became concerned about the girl after she was dropped off at the center. The worker noticed bruises on both sides of her face and a bandage on her left elbow. Beneath the bandage was a circular mark with dark red edges. It was consistent with a burn and roughly the diameter of a cigarette, according to court records.
The girl told the worker that the bruise on the left side of her forehead was from her little brother’s toy train falling on her. She also told the woman that she didn’t know how she got the other injuries and that maybe her little brother, aged 16 months, hit her.
The girl eventually told the worker that a man who knows her mom got mad at her because she wanted to wear her sandals and he wanted her to wear her shoes. She said he hit her in the face.
She also said he burned her arm.
A probable cause affidavit is unclear as to precisely what the man’s relationship is to the girl and her mother.
Child Protective Services were called and the girl and her brother were placed in their care.
In an interview with a social worker, the suspect, 28, denied burning the girl with a cigarette or slapping or injuring her in any way. The suspect and the girl’s mother speculated that the injury to the girl’s elbow could have been a rug burn.
A doctor from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle looked at photos of the injuries. In her opinion, the marks on the right side of her face were “highly consistent with a slap mark,” according to court papers. She also said a typical toddler the age of the girl’s brother doesn’t have the coordination to slap with enough force to cause such an injury.
The doctor said the injury to the girl’s elbow didn’t look like a rug burn and is consistent with a cigarette burn.
She also said the lit end of a cigarette “would have had to have been held against the skin for several seconds to cause such a burn,” according to court papers.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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