RICHMOND, IN — A Wayne County man is accused of striking a child who was outside searching for his pet frog.
Jesse P. Poole, 35, of Fountain City, is charged in Wayne Circuit Court 3 with battery on a person less than 14 years old, a Level 6 felony carrying up to 30 months in prison.
A Wayne County sheriff’s deputy reported he was called to the 500 block of Davis Street in Fountain City on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 1, after dispatchers received a report of a disturbance.
According to an affidavit, a 10-year-old boy — wearing a hard hat with an attached headlamp as he tried to find his frog in his family’s yard — was confronted by Poole, a neighbor who had climbed over a fence to gain access to the child’s yard.
Poole was reportedly upset that that a dog belonging to the boy’s family was barking. The boy told the deputy he shouted at Poole to stop screaming at the dog.
The court document said Poole struck the child’s “hard hat with an open hand,” knocking the hat off the youth’s head and dislodging the headlamp.
The youth, who was holding a bag of ice against his head when the deputy arrived, had a “red area on the left side of his forehead,” the affidavit said. Emergency medical personnel were called to the scene.
Poole also reportedly exchanged angry words with the boy’s grandmother.
The Fountain City man told the deputy the child “must have bumped into me” while he was “temporarily blinded” by the headlamp on the boy’s hat.
Poole was released from the Wayne County Jail after posting a $5,000 bond.
According to court records, he has been convicted of two misdemeanors, battery and driving while intoxicated.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Wayne County man accused of striking child who was searching for frog
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Richmond Palladium-Item / Richmond Palladium-Item
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Douglas Walker, Richmond Palladium-Item | USA TODAY Network
