Man accused of injuring children

A man accused of abusing his children claims the children’s bruises were from sledding; and his girl’s wrist injuries were from rubber bands.

Jose Alberto Partida Sr., 34, of Green River appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at an arraignment to a felony charge of child abuse.

If Partida Sr. is found guilty of the felony, he could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

According to court documents, Feb. 12, 2016, a Green River Police officer met with a Rock Springs Police officer at the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County to check on a possible child-abuse report.

After arriving, the GR officer met with Anna Acosta, maternal grandmother of Partida Sr.s’ children and a Wyoming Department of Family Services employee. Acosta told the officer she and Partida Sr. were alternating physical custody of the children on a weekly basis. When she got the children back on Feb. 11, 2016, she noticed bruising on the legs and buttocks of Partida Sr.s’ 4-year-old son; a small red area on the right side of a Partida Sr.s’ 3-year-old daughter’s buttocks and red rings around the wrists of his 1-year-old daughter. Acosta told the officer she had never seen bruises like these before.

The officer looked at the children and confirmed what Acosta had seen and also noticed the 4-year-old boy had linear bruises on his left thigh, and a linear hook-looking bruise on the back of his right thigh. The bruises appeared to be in different stages of healing. He photographed the children’s injuries and took them into protective custody.

While the officer was photographing the children, he asked them who had done this to them, the 4-year-old boy said “daddy.”

Officers contacted Partida Sr., and asked him about the injuries to the children. Partida Sr., said the wrist injuries to the 1-year-old were from her putting hair ties around her wrists. He said the 4-year-old’s injuries were from a spanking he had given the boy with his hand after the boy defecated on the floor several times. All of the other bruises were probably from when Partida Sr., and the children went sledding.

Isabel Kelly, the children’s babysitter, was interviewed by an officer and she said she had seen Partida Sr., and Nicole Haymon, Partida Sr.’s girlfriend spank the children on their bottoms with their open hands. She said she never saw them spank them with an object or hard enough to leave marks. Kelly said she didn’t notice bruising on the children, but the children had their clothes on all day. She did notice red ring marks around the 1-year-old’s wrists and was told by Haymon the girl had put rubber bands around her wrists and left them there while she slept.

Haymon was also interviewed by an officer. She told the officer they spank their kids with an open hand. When the officer told her about the hook-like bruising. She said Partida Sr., allegedly used a child-sized plastic clothes hanger to spank children on the outside of the clothes.

She gave the officer one of the hangers. Haymon said she had heard the 4-year-old being spanked in the bathroom and that he did not have any clothes on at the time because he had been defecating.

As for the girl’s wrists, Haymon said Partida Sr., told texted her that the girl had gotten into her rubber band hair ties and had placed them on her wrists before falling asleep.