Posted on 04/28/2008 4:50:21 AM PDT by Renfield
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A mother who was videotaped while spraying her 2 1/2-year-old daughter with a high-pressure water hose at an Orlando car wash told authorities she did it because the child was throwing a tantrum.
She told authorities she did not have the hose on full blast, and she said that it isn't as bad as it looks.
The mother said she had used this type of punishment before with a spray bottle.
The mother saw herself on TV late Thursday afternoon and called deputies. She called deputies and said they could come to her apartment to speak with her and see her daughter.
Marlene Diaz, a manager at Magical Car Wash, said she has never seen this type of abuse before.
"You don't do that to a kid," Diaz said. "No child deserves that."
The video showed the child trying to hide her face while the woman pinned her to a wall and sprayed her at close range.
"Disgusted," Diaz said. "I'm mad, infuriated as to how someone could do that to a little child."
Officials said the water shoots out of the hoses with a force of about 1,200 pounds per square inch, powerful enough to create the type of friction and sting from a rug burn.
"Your skin gets red, and at times it could peel," Diaz said.
"That's a pressure washer; that's meant to be used on a car, not on a child," mother Carol Felicicano said.
Diaz didn't see what happened until she checked the surveillance tapes, but she said she heard the girl crying after the mother stopped spraying her.
Diaz said she also heard the mother say, "You're going to learn to respect me. You don't treat me bad. You don't mistreat me; I'm your mother."
Surveillance cameras showed the mother stripped the girl, leaving her standing in the car wash bay naked, while she grabbed a towel and put her back in the car.
The Department of Children and Families said the child was taken to a medical facility for an evaluation.
The child was examined by the Child's Protection Team nurse practitioner and found to have no visible injuries.
DCF did not remove the child from the residence.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office Child Abuse detectives are still investigating the criminal portion of this case to determine the proper course of action.
Sgt. John Allen said Thursday night that the investigation would continue Friday.
Investigators said the mother could face child abuse charges.
What are these days coming to when you can’t pressure warsh a kid?
Oh PLEASE!
There are children being raped and killed every day in this country, and the state officials are concerned because a woman sprays her kid with a car wash wand?
Car wash wand pressure is NOT the same as a pressure washer, which can take paint off of metal or wood!
I hope that before this woman let the state officials into her house, she hid her refrigerator and stove! The refrigerator could topple over on her child, or the child might burn himself on the stove! Just having these dangerous objects in her house could get her the death penalty for child abuse!
Mark
It’s the spraying in the face that bothers me most. Plus the kid only being 2 1/2. The high pressure hose treatment is overboard in this case but that doesnt mean it cant have its merit.
Wash or warsh. Just another one of those many words that let people know that you're not from around here, or that they aren't from where you're from. :)
Maybe we’ll one less gang-banger when he grows up?
How else do you get the paint off them?
The pressure depends on the distance between the skin and the nozzle. If she said the washing was for punishment she was inflicting pain.
This woman’s creative. She combined pain with hygene. /s
For those who never wash their cars, the hoses in these carwashes have a hand control on them. When the control is not pulled, water comes out with less force than a garden hose. At full force, it can be painful, but not injurious, unless aimed directly at the face or other sensitive areas. I have often used the hose at full blast to clean soap or dirt from my hand inches from the nozzle with no problem at all.
But, since it is the woman’s word vs. the word of the government, she is automatically guilty.
I always thought that was more a generational thing than geographical. I always hear old guys (older boomers and WWII generation) pronouncing it “warsh”, never younger guys.
> DCF did not remove the child from the residence.
Good thing she didn’t serve the child Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Thanks Renfield.
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