WINCHESTER, IN — A Randolph County man has been accused of battering his child and threatening the girl’s mother.
Joshua Jay Barlow, 50 — listed in court documents at addresses in Winchester and Union City — was charged on Friday, May 29, in Randolph Superior Court with battery on a person less than 14 years old, strangulation and intimidation.
All three charges are Level 6 felonies with maximum 30-month sentences.
A Winchester Police Department captain reported he was advised on April 15, by an official with the Indiana Department of Child Services, of allegations Barlow had been intoxicated when his children recently visited with him in Winchester. He was also accused of grabbing his daughter by the neck, choking her.
A few days later, the police captain was informed the children’s mother said she wanted to recant the allegations against Barlow and was reconciling with him.
The Randolph County Sheriff’s Department, initially unaware of the earlier Winchester police probe, began investigating the allegations against Barlow in late May.
The children were interviewed at a child advocacy center in Richmond. While there, the girl said her father “likes to choke people a lot” and also struck her, at times with a belt.
Their children’s mother said she had ended earlier efforts to have Barlow prosecuted because he had threatened her, indicating he would both release nude photos he had taken of her and seize custody of their children.
A deputy indicated when he reached Barlow by phone, the Randolph County man sounded “highly intoxicated” and was “slurring his words and jumping from topic to topic.”
When the deputy said he hoped to speak with Barlow later “if he could stay sober,” the Randolph County man warned the deputy he would be hearing from his attorney.
A warrant for Barlow’s arrest was issued on May 29.
According to court records, the former Muncie resident has been convicted of crimes including domestic battery, strangulation, armed robbery, criminal confinement, burglary, nonsupport of a dependent child, public intoxication 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 Muncie Star Press: Randolph County man accused of battering child, threatening her mother
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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