Two reports of abuse result in arrests

“It?s completely coincidental,” said Officer Hal Dalton, police spokesman.

“We haven?t seen a trend or anything.”

Police were called Jan. 29 to an apartment in the 1100 block of Madison Street where paramedics found an unresponsive 3-year-old boy in a bathtub.

The toddler was flown to Johns Hopkins Children?s Center in Baltimore City with non-life-threatening injuries, but hospital staff discovered numerous injuries on the boy?s body, including large burns apparently caused by scalding, police said.

The boy?s stepfather, 24, whose name is being withheld to protect the child?s identity, told police he was angry after the boy urinated on himself.

He told police he put the boy in the bathtub and left him unattended.

When he returned, the boy was unresponsive, and he called 911, police said.

The stepfather was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree child abuse, assault and related offenses. He is being held at the Jennifer Road Detention Center on a $750,000 bond, police said.

At the time of his arrest, the stepfather had a fugitive warrant out for his arrest for an undisclosed crime in Virginia, Dalton said.

In a separate incident,a 15-year-old girl told police she returned home from a friend?s house about 8:30 p.m. Sunday to the 100 block of Quiet Waters Place and her mother asked her to come downstairs.

The mother allegedly bound the girl to a chair with duct tape and beat her with an extension cord, police said.

The girl told police her mother threatened to beat her more if she talked, and her younger sister freed her from the chair when the mother left the room.

The girl, who had visible injuries, first reported the incident to her teachers at Annapolis High School.

The mother, 32, whose name also is being withheld, was charged with second-degree child abuse, assault and other related offenses. She was taken to the Annapolis detention center and was released on a $15,000 bail, police said.

[email protected]