A Burlington woman was charged Monday with multiple counts of child abuse for allegedly beating her 13-year-old daughter with a belt on two separate days last week.
Victoria L. Smoger, 34, appeared in Racine County Circuit Court Monday on two felony counts each of physical abuse of a child and false imprisonment and a single misdemeanor count of intimidation of a victim.
A court commissioner set cash bond at $1,000 and order Smoger not to have contact with the victim or her husband, who was also allegedly involved in one of the beatings.
According to the criminal complaint, City of Burlington police were dispatched to Karcher Middle School on Friday for a report of child abuse.
The victim told police her mother, Smoger, beat her with a belt on Oct. 7 and Oct. 9 as punishment for not immediately coming home from school after she was grounded for being involved in a fight there.
She told police that on Oct. 7 she went to a friend’s house without telling her mother and when she came home at about 9:30 p.m., she was greeted by her stepfather, who pushed her onto the couch and held her there while her mother “whooped” her with a belt – striking her about 10 times in her arms and legs over a period of two minutes.
The stepfather is not named here because as of Monday he had not been charged with a crime.
The victim told police she suffered bruises to her arms and legs and a cut on her thigh that bled into her pants. She described the pain as a nine on a scale of one to 10.
After the beating the mother ordered the girl to take a cold shower “so the bruises would go away,” the complaint alleges.
The girl told investigators she woke up sore the next morning and was told by Smoger that she “better not tell anyone at school about the beating.”
On Oct. 9, the girl again came home late. This time Smoger allegedly ordered the girl to remove her own belt, which she then used to strike the girl. The victim told police her mother became frustrated because she was attempting to block the blows from the belt. When the belt began to rip, the mother allegedly used it to tie the girl’s hands together and then resumed beating her with another belt.
The complaint contends the girl attempted to run from the beating, but suffered blows to the chest and neck areas. The victim told police the beating lasted about 10 minutes.
The complaint alleged Smoger again ordered her daughter to take a cold shower to minimize bruising.
Two police officers met with the girl and reported that her injuries were recent and consistent with a beating from a belt.
Smoger, who was bound over for trial, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 22.
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