Mother to serve time for hitting child with cellphone cord
A mother was sentenced to one month in jail after admitting she hit her preschool-aged daughter with a cellphone charger cord.
Kay L. Ragsdale, 24, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault of a child. Her sentence can be done on a jail work crew if she's eligible.
When asked by the judge during sentencing if she wanted to say anything, Ragsdale responded, "Nope."
Ragsdale told her daughter's teacher on Jan. 23 that the girl had marks on her back -- described as "welted" -- because the girl's younger sibling hit her with a cellphone cord, court documents said. The mom said she was telling the teacher about it so she didn't call Child Protective Services, and the teacher suggested the girl go to a doctor.
But the next day at school, the girl told her teacher in Spanish, "My mom hit me with a cable." The girl had six welts on her back, in addition to claiming she was hit on her collarbone and the bridge of her nose, documents said.
CPS was called and Kennewick police got a search warrant for Ragsdale's home. Officers reportedly found several phone charger cords on the ground in the main living room.
Ragsdale, in an interview with police, initially denied hitting her daughter and blamed it on her son, then apologized for doing it, court documents said. She said she got upset because her kids were out of control and she couldn't take it anymore, documents said.
She reportedly wasn't sure how many times she "whacked" her daughter with the cable.
Ragsdale's no-contact order with her daughter still is in place, but prosecutors said she may have supervised visitation as allowed by the state Department of Social and Health Services.
Defense lawyer Ryan Swinburnson said it is key for his client to still have those visits and, if anything changes with the requirements, they will come back to court to modify the order.
This story was originally published August 8, 2013 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Mother to serve time for hitting child with cellphone cord."