Sulphur Springs woman jailed on charges of child injury after alleged spanking

A 25-year-old Sulphur Springs woman is being held on charges of injury to a child stemming from spanking, according to reports. 

At approximately 7:57 p.m. on Thursday, Bridgette Bowen came into the HCSO lobby to tell sheriff’s deputies “her parents had her 18-month-old child and were refusing to release the child to her,” reports said. According to her, “Bowen stated that her parents were refusing to release the child because they believed she was abusing the child because she spanked the child as discipline.” Sheriff’s deputies agreed to escort Bowen home so she could retrieve her child from her parents, reports said. 

After arriving at the home in the 100 block of Sandy Hill Road, deputies wrote that Bowen’s mother was holding her 18-month-old son, who was not wearing a diaper, and deputies could see “bruising covering the entirety of [son’s] right buttocks area and a small bruise on his left buttocks area,” reports said. 

Bowen allegedly admitted to “spank[ing] the child with a wooden spoon for yelling, crying and acting out for no apparent reason,” on Dec. 16. Upon speaking with Bowen’s mother and father,  “it was determined that the bruising was a result of Bridgette spanking son with the spoon on Dec. 16,” reports claimed. 

At that time, arresting officer Deputy Fisher stated, “I informed Bowen that it was my opinion based on the facts at hand that her form of discipline exceeded normal discipline and was abuse,” the report said. Bowen was taken to jail without incident and booked on charges of injury to a child, where she remains on $20,000 bond.