Tri-Cities mother charged with drunkenly beating her wheelchair-bound daughter
A Kennewick mother is in jail, charged with drunkenly beating her severely disabled daughter to the point of leaving her bruised across half her body.
The girl has cerebral palsy and a lifelong infection called cytomegalovirus (CMV). The combination means she is unable to speak or walk, according to court documents.
A Seattle Children’s Hospital doctor told investigators the bruises on the 10-year-old girl could not have been caused accidentally, according to documents filed by Benton County prosecutors.
The girl’s mother, Courtney Marie Bissinger, 38, pleaded innocent this week to second-degree assault of a child and witness tampering. She’s been in the Benton County jail since her arrest Saturday.
Deputy Prosecutor Holai Holbrook initially asked Monday for $25,000 bail and for a court order to keep Bissinger away from her daughter, saying prosecutors wanted to protect the girl.
But Bissinger’s attorney Megan Kilgore said her client has made dramatic improvements in the past six months while she’s undergone treatment for alcohol abuse.
Bissinger was interviewed by detectives last summer but was allowed to attend treatment until charges were filed. Kilgore noted that she’d been living in the same home with her daughter since September and argued that she should still be allowed to see her daughter pending the outcome of the case.
“She’s been back in the home since early September,” Kilgore said, adding that Child Protective Services had left the girl in the same home even after the abuse was reported.
“I don’t think the court should enter a no contact order,” Kilgore said. “I think, at this point, it’s way too late to ask for a no contact order.”
She asked that Bissinger be released on her own recognizance.
But Court Commissioner Megan Whitmire set her bail at $10,000 and issued the order preventing Bissinger from contacting her daughter. She said it was not only for the safety of the girl, but to prevent Bissinger from potentially interfering with the case.
Prosecutors allege Bissinger already tried to tamper with a witness by calling her ex-boyfriend to tell him to not to talk to police because they just want to use him against her.
Bissinger cried several times during this week’s hearing.
“You guys are just traumatizing this child,” she said.
Alleged abuse
Bissinger has said she struggled with alcohol abuse, leading up to the evening of July 30. She told CPS social workers that she had been coping with stress by drinking, according to court records.
She said she stopped drinking for 12 days, but then convinced herself that she could have a couple of shots on July 30.
That night, neighbors, including Bissinger’s ex-boyfriend, heard her screaming and they called police because they were concerned for Bissinger and her daughter’s safety, according to court documents.
Police came to the home, but court documents don’t say what happened that night.
On Aug. 3, Washington state Child Protective Services investigators visited the home and Bissinger allegedly admitted that she’d blacked out that night and woken up with the girl next to her. The girl appeared to have fresh bruises.
One of the social workers found a bruise the size of a half dollar on the girl’s cheek and extensive bruising stretching from the girl’s torso to her knee. She also had bruising on a shoulder and foot.
She was examined by the Seattle Children’s Hospital doctor who reported the girl, who is wheelchair-bound, suffered “severe and extensive bruising to multiple areas of her body, neck, face and head” that could not have been accidental, according to court documents.
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 12:59 PM.