An Earlham man was arrested Monday in connection with a Dec. 11 incident in which he allegedly spanked his 4-year-old son with a wooden spoon.
Anthony David Brandt, 31, of 1800 335th Lane, Earlham, was charged with child endangerment-bodily injury.
According to court records, the incident began when the child’s mother picked the child up from his father’s residence and found “bruising on his buttocks.” The “bruising was severe and did appear to take the shape of a potential wooden spoon.”
The child told his mother that his father spanked him with the spoon, and he repeated the claim in an interview Dec. 17 at the Blank Children’s Hospital Support Teams for Achieving Resiliency (STAR) .
Brandt admitted in a Dec. 19 interview with law enforcement, with his attorneys and representatives of the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) also present, that he struck the child once on his “clothed buttocks” and when the child “had no response to this,” he “proceeded to pull” the child’s “pants down and spank him two more times with the wooden spoon on” the child’s “bare buttocks.”
According to court records, the child’s mother received a text message from Brandt while the child was in his custody in which he said he spanked the boy “for saying he hated Anthony’s girlfriend.”
The DHS has put a safety plan in effect for the child and his father, according to court records.
Brandt was released on his own recognizance from the Dallas County Jail. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Jan. 17 in Dallas County District Court.
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
