Garret Steven Davis, 18, of 13227 County Road 15, Detroit Lakes, has been charged in Becker County District Court with malicious punishment of a child, a felony.
According to court records:
On March 16 the sheriff's department received a report of a 15-month-old child who had allegedly been assaulted.
The child's mother reported that on March 14 she had left her infant son with her boyfriend, Davis, while she went to work.
She received a text message at work saying the boy had fallen on a toy and hurt himself. She came home to find bruise marks on his face and buttocks.
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She allegedly confronted Davis about the injuries and he again said the boy had fallen and hurt himself.
An investigator with the Becker County Sheriff's Department observed bruises on the left side of the child's face near his ear. There were also deep purple bruises on the tips of both ears, and on the buttocks was deep purple, blue and red bruising in the shape of a handprint.
Davis allegedly admitted to the investigator that he had spanked the boy and that he had spanked him too hard.
He appeared Monday before District Judge Joe Evans, who set $3,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond and ordered him to have no contact with the victim's mother and no unsupervised contact with any child under age 18 -- except at school and school events and activities.
