A 39-year-old mother in Texas is accused of hitting her young daughter over the head with a wall as punishment. She is said to have admitted to the abuse and then asked incredulously if such behavior was really illegal before telling the victim and her siblings to lie to police.
At the beginning of the month, Katherine Crosby was arrested and charged with one count of felony injury to a child.
A probable cause affidavit says that on June 6, a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigator saw Crosby’s daughter with a black eye that was bruised and swollen. The girl’s age is redacted from the documents, but it is said to be younger than 14. “When someone in their house gets mad, they get punched, their nose gets broken, they get black eyes, or their head gets banged into the door,” the child told the police.
The victim told the police, “My mom did this to me and it hurt really bad,” the affidavit says. She said that her mom Katherine Crosby put her in the corner for being bad and then walked over to her, grabbed the back of her head by her ponytail, and slammed her head into the wall, which caused the black eve. The victim told the police that her mother did this because she was mad at her. Once more, she said it “hurt really bad.”
Crosby’s daughter told police that on June 5, her mother gave her a black eye. She also said that it was not the first time she had been abused in this way. Police say she also said her mother didn’t take her to the doctor or give her ice for the injury.
In a later interview with police, Crosby is said to have admitted to hurting her daughter.
That’s what the affidavit says: “Crosby admitted to hitting the victim in the head against the wall.” Cross said, ‘Yes I did it.'” Then Crosby showed how she did it, which was the same way the victim said it happened. Crosby asked, “What am I not able to do?” The police officer told her that was child abuse and she couldn’t do that to her child or children.
On June 26, Crosby, the alleged victim, and the alleged victim’s sisters all went to the Garth House for Forensic Interviews to be questioned. Before they even talked to the police, the alleged victim and her sisters told them that their mother “told them to lie” and “say that she didn’t physically harm” the victim.
Crosby told the victim to tell police that “she fell on a brick and that’s why her eye was black and swollen,” the victim said. Police say the victim’s sisters said their mom taught them to say that a brick hurt their sibling.
The victim then asked, “Wait, was I supposed to say that I tripped on a brick? That’s what my mom told me to say,” the affidavit says.
Crosby allegedly tried to change her story about her first confession and get the CPS investigator to question the kids again about her daughter’s injury at a meeting the next day.
“I want you to ask the girls again, in front of me, what happened to [the victim’s] eye because they will all tell you that I did not do anything to [the victim],” she said, per the statement.
Records show that Crosby was arrested on July 9 and taken to the Tyler County Jail in lieu of a $125,000 bond. He was released the next day. The next hearing date for her was not available right away.
