WEST PARK, Fla. – A West Park woman is facing an aggravated child abuse charge after deputies accused her of “smearing feces all over her son” as a “form of punishment” for soiling himself, according to court documents obtained by Local 10 News on Thursday.
According to a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Tania Contreras, 39, took video of the act and sent it to her mother in Venezuela. Deputies arrested her Tuesday.
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The report states that a Florida Department of Children and Families investigator went to Contreras’ home on Ronald Road on May 11 after receiving a tip on the state’s child abuse hotline.
Contreras provided the investigator with her cellphone, and the investigator viewed the video, which showed the boy “with feces on his face, chest and arms,” the report states.
The boy, whose age wasn’t specified, was seen on the video crying, a BSO detective wrote.
That detective said Contreras said she “became enraged at her son sitting in his own feces for most of the day without telling her.”
Contreras had told the DCF investigator that she hoped the punishment would get him to “learn not to defecate on himself again.”
Authorities said Contreras also admitted to beating her son with a belt — once for exiting her vehicle before her as they went grocery shopping — and hit him on the head with her cellphone after he broke the screen.
The report states she told detectives that “physical punishment is normal in her home country of Venezuela” but admitted that she “overdid it” by smearing feces on her son; she said she believes he didn’t tell her he soiled himself because he was “afraid of her.”
“A full report of (her son’s) scars, marks and bruises is pending,” the detective wrote.
Contreras remained in the North Broward Bureau jail facility as of Thursday, held on a $15,000 bond and an immigration hold.