MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Miami Beach police arrested an Orlando woman on child abuse and battery charges after accusing her of punching her 12-year-old daughter in the face late Saturday night.
According to an arrest report, police responded to the 3900 block of Collins Avenue, on Mid-Beach, just after 11 p.m. after receiving reports of a man and woman fighting.
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That man, police said, had intervened after seeing Karen Romero, 34, punch her daughter “multiple times with a closed fist.”
According to the arrest report, as the man separated the two, Romero turned her attention towards him, becoming “irate,” getting in his face “aggressively” and striking him multiple times. He told police that after multiple attempts to push Romero away, he punched her across the face in self-defense.
Police said the girl had a “bloody mouth, swollen lips and blood all over her shoes.”
The girl told police that she and her mother had been up the street at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel, located at 4441 Collins Ave. and that her mother had been drinking before the two walked back to their hotel.
According to the report, the girl told officers that her mother hit her in the face with a cellphone. She declined medical treatment and was placed in the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Police took Romero to Mount Sinai Medical Center for medical clearance and then the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Romero, a security guard, was being held on a felony charge of child abuse causing no great bodily harm and a misdemeanor charge of battery. A Miami-Dade judge set her bail at $4,000.