Parents arrested on suspicion of child abuse
Two Albuquerque parents were arrested on suspicion of child abuse after police said the mother whipped their 5-year-old boy with the buckle end of a belt and held the child’s head under water, which an investigator said was reminiscent of “water boarding.”
Crystal Harrison, 28, and Jonathan Ruiz, 29, were released from jail Saturday after posting $50,000 and $25,000 bonds, respectively, jail records show.
An Albuquerque Police Department detective responded to Chaparral Elementary School on Dec. 1 last year after school officials noticed bruising on a 5-year-old boy’s body, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. In interviews with members of the Child Abuse Response Team and forensic interviewers, the boy said Harrison would strike him with belt buckles, force him to stand in a corner after school for hours at a time and hold his head under water in the bathtub, the complaint said.
The boy’s “history of being held under water indicates a potentially life threatening event, and is reminiscent of the torture/interrogation practice commonly referred to as ‘water boarding,’” the complaint states.
Authorities also interviewed the boy’s 9- and 10-year-old siblings. They said that Harrison has whipped the boy, held him under water and made him stand in a corner if he misbehaved at school, and one said Ruiz has also struck the child with his hands. They also said that Ruiz was aware that Harrison had abused him, according to the complaint.
The complaint said the parents’ actions were “far beyond what could be accepted as corporal punishment or discipline.”
A detective also wrote in the complaint that Harrison is a threat to the victim and the community because she works at Desert Hills, which provides behavioral and mental health care for children.
Arrest warrants were issued for Harrison and Ruiz on Dec. 15. Harrison was arrested on Thursday; Ruiz on Friday, according to court documents.