Family members not allowed to visit 2-month-old who reportedly was put in microwave oven

May 18, 2007, 12:09AM
By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

GALVESTON — State welfare officials have taken custody of a 2-month-old girl whose father is accused of burning her in a microwave oven and will place her in a foster home when she is released from the hospital, officials said Thursday.

Children's Protective Services took custody of the child Tuesday, the day her father, Joshua Royce Mauldin, 19, of Warren, Ark., was arrested on a charge of felony injury to a child, CPS spokeswoman Gwen Carter said.

She said CPS has asked that no family member be allowed to visit the child at Galveston's Shriners Burns Hospital, where physicians from the University of Texas Medical Branch have performed two skin grafts.

Galveston Police Sgt. Annie Almendarez said CPS was moving to terminate the parents' rights to the child.

Critical, but stable

The child had burns on the left side of her face and to her left hand, police said.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said he had seen photographs of the child's injuries. "It's pretty damned horrible," he said. "They clearly met the definition of serious bodily injury."

A Galveston County grand jury indicted Mauldin on Wednesday after hearing evidence that he placed his daughter in a microwave at a motel for 10 to 20 seconds last week.

Almendarez said the child remained in critical but stable condition. A spokeswoman at Shriners Burns Hospital declined to release any information about the child's injuries, treatment or condition.

Mauldin, who said he came to Galveston with his wife and mother because he was called to be a preacher, told police he put his daughter in the microwave because he was under stress. Police have declined to elaborate.

Police have said the mother and grandmother remained under investigation and were being housed at an undisclosed location. Sistrunk said the fact that the investigation was continuing "means there may be more charges forthcoming."

He said police had sent the microwave oven and a refrigerator from Mauldin's room at the Quality Inn, where the incident occurred, to the Department of Public Safety crime laboratory for examination. Neither Sistrunk nor Almendarez would say why the refrigerator was being examined by the crime lab.

Prior battery charges

Mauldin worked at a Sonic Drive-In in Warren, a town of about 6,000, before arriving in Galveston with his wife and the child's paternal grandmother the day before the child was burned.

Warren police Sgt. Don Hollingsworth said Mauldin pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. He also was charged with violation of an order of protection, an order usually associated with domestic violence or divorce cases.

The child's maternal grandmother, Melinda Murphy, of Warren, said she was unable to discuss the incident. "It's hard on me and my family," she said.

CPS investigators intend to interview relatives in Arkansas or ask the assistance of Arkansas officials in conducting the interviews, Carter said.

Carter said CPS has scheduled a mediation session with the family for May 23 to discuss the terms under which the parents will relinquish custody.

Mauldin remains in the Galveston County Jail on $250,000 bail.

harvey.rice@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4815152.html