LAYTON, Fla. – Deputies arrested a man at a Florida Keys resort on an aggravated child abuse charge after they said a verbal argument over his 15-year-old daughter’s dating preferences escalated Tuesday night.
According to jail records, William Douglas Burks, 50, of Carleton, Michigan, was arrested just before midnight at the Lime Tree Bay Resort, located at 68500 Overseas Highway in Layton.
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A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrest report states that Burks was having dinner with his wife, his daughter and his daughter’s friend when an argument broke out with his daughter “over her boyfriend, who is Black.”
The girl told deputies that “her dad is all against her dating Black males and he tends to be racist,” investigators wrote.
Deputies said the girl threw a soda at him because she was “tired of him talking down at her.”
Burks’ wife corroborated the story, adding that she and the girls left the restaurant afterward to go back to their room while Burks stayed to drink at the bar.
She told authorities that he showed up at the room about an hour later and rekindled the argument, eventually throwing his keys at his daughter, causing her to throw her cellphone back at him.
After throwing items at each other, Burks’ daughter tried to leave the hotel room with her friend to “go walk the beach and cool off a bit,” but Burks grabbed her by the hair, “threw her on the bed” and punched her multiple times, despite attempts to break the two up, according to the report.
Burks sustained a knot on his head after the incident, deputies said; the girl and her mother told them it likely came from him hitting the nightstand during the tussle.
According to the arrest report, an “intoxicated” Burks told deputies that the argument was over how his daughter has been “living her life” and she overreacted, later punching him in the face three times.
The girl’s friend told authorities that Burks was the aggressor and the girl was acting in self-defense, deputies wrote.
Deputies said they arrested Burks because of his drunken state and inconsistent account of the incident.
Authorities took Burks to the Monroe County jail facility in Key West, where he was being held without bond on charges of aggravated child abuse and misdemeanor battery as of Wednesday afternoon. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 27, jail records show.