Oklahoma Father and Stepmother Arrested for ALLEGEDLY ABUSING 8-YEAR-OLD WITH PADDLE, Leaving Severe Injuries

A 43-year-old father and his 30-year-old wife were arrested in Oklahoma for reportedly assaulting their 8-year-old boy with household items and forcing the child to live in horrible conditions that left him covered in insect bites from head to toe.

Joseph Wiles and Mekayla Beard were arrested earlier this month and charged with two charges of criminal child neglect, according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.

Beard, who allegedly stated that Child Protective Services instructed her that assaulting children was acceptable, was charged with one count of felony child abuse, while Wiles was charged with one count of felony aiding child abuse.

According to a probable cause document, at 6:54 p.m. on July 17, officers from the Harrah Police Department responded to a report of child abuse at a mobile home park within a block from the station. The reporting party was a neighbor who informed police she hadn’t seen the victim in a long time until earlier in the day when the youngster was allowed to visit with her, at which point she noticed he was covered in bruises and bug bites.

When questioned about the abuse, the child had a troubling reaction, telling police that when his stepmother asked him about a phrase in a book and he didn’t know, she told him to “bend over so she can give me a butt whooping,” according to the affidavit. The boy begged her to stop, crying “Please don’t, please don’t,” but it had no effect.

The victim claimed Beard then began striking him “wherever she wanted, here, here, and everywhere,” pointing to several bruises on his body.

Beard allegedly urged him to bend over again, and when the victim refused, Beard allegedly threatened, “I’m just going to hit you wherever it lands.”

“[The victim] indicated that even when he fell off the couch and onto the floor from trying to protect himself, he was told (by Beard), ‘I don’t care, I’m going to whoop you wherever,'” noted the affidavit.

The victim told authorities that the abuse had caused him to lose feeling in his hips, upper and lower buttocks and that Beard hit him with a wooden paddle that eventually split in half. He also said that his father was home and witnessed the abuse, according to the affidavit.

Police stated the boy had bruises “all over his body” and “enormous amounts of bug bites from his head to his feet,” some of which seemed to be infected.

Officers then spoke with Beard, who used “a wooden paddle wrapped in black electrical tape” to patch the break.

“Beard told me that last night she gave [the victim] a spanking with the paddle because he was lying,” according to the waiver.

She also allegedly advocated using a metal spatula and belt to chastise the children.

Beard claimed the victim began “thrusting around” and telling her she could not beat him because she was “not his momma.” She then suggested that she hit him on the buttocks.

“Beard advised the only reason she uses the paddle on the children is because Child Protective Services told her that ‘as long as it’s on the bottom or anywhere else, it’s okay,” according to the statement of claim. “Beard reiterated to me that CPS told her ‘as long as it’s on the bottom, it’s not abuse.'”

Police Chief Marty Burns told Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV that the man had “the darkest black and blue I’ve ever seen,” and that he was “covered from head to toe” with mosquito bites.

Beard and Wiles were arrested and sent to the Oklahoma County Detention Center, where they remain on $50,000 bond as per Lawandcrime.