Deputy beat adopted son, let daughter’s teeth turn black from decay, Florida cops say

A deputy accused of beating his son and allowing his daughter’s teeth to turn black by not giving her a toothbrush now faces charges of child neglect in Florida.

He’s no longer with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

McClatchy News contacted the ex-deputy’s defense attorney Aug. 8 and did not immediately receive a response.

The 40-year-old husband and 39-year-old wife each face two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and two counts of parental failure to require school attendance, records show. The husband additionally is charged with child abuse without great bodily harm.

McClatchy News is not identifying the couple to avoid identifying their children.

On July 28, deputies responded to a church after receiving a report that someone had told the preacher he was being abused by his father, according to an arrest affidavit.

When deputies spoke with him, he said he worried “no one would believe” him because his father was a deputy, but he told investigators his dad was “historically physically abusive.”

Since he was adopted in 2017, he had no formal education and instead mowed lawns, but his father kept all the money he earned to buy groceries for the family, he told deputies.

He said he would rather be homeless than continue living there and provided photos of his injuries, according to investigators.

The father “adamantly” denied physically punishing his children and said he takes some of his son’s money from mowing lawns to replace items he has broken in the home, deputies said. He said he also uses some of the money to buy groceries but denied taking all of it, deputies said.

When investigators visited the home where three school-age children lived, they said they noticed one of the children had “obvious” decay on her front teeth. She said she doesn’t brush her teeth because she doesn’t have a toothbrush, but added her father had been saving for a new toothbrush and to fix her teeth, according to deputies.

Photographs of the children’s teeth revealed one of them had four front teeth that were “black from decay” and a large pit on one of her canines, deputies said.

The former deputy, who worked for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office for a little over two years, told investigators he had medical and dental insurance.

The husband and wife are also accused of failing to comply with education standards for homeschooling in Escambia County.

One of the children said she did one to two hours of work a day under the supervision of her mother, who traveled often for work, deputies said.

The girl didn’t know what grade she was in and had never taken an assessment test by a licensed teacher, investigators said.

The couple was booked in jail Aug. 3, records show.

Escambia County is in the western part of the Florida Panhandle, and Pensacola is the county seat.

This story was originally published August 8, 2024 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Deputy beat adopted son, let daughter’s teeth turn black from decay, Florida cops say."