Charles Morgan Sanders, a 42-year-old resident of Pritchard Drive in Palm Coast, faces felony child abuse and misdemeanor domestic battery charges following a confrontation with his girlfriend that the woman’s 11-year-old son witnessed and attempted to end before Sanders allegedly picked him up and put him outside.
When Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, the 11-year-old boy was in hysterics, yelling, “he is going to kill her! he is going to shoot her!,” according to Sanders’s arrest report.
The boy’s mother told deputies she was taking a shower when Sanders walked, a drink in hand, in and asked her something about noticing the bathroom mat. When she asked him about the odd question, he got angry, yelled at her, and smashed his glass on the wall, began to bang his hand on the bathroom door, then “grabbed her by the neck while continuing to yell at her,” according to the report. He then allegedly “grabbed her by both of her forearms and attempted to force her out of the residence while she was still naked.”
At one point she stepped on the glass and cut her foot. She managed to get away and tell her son to get his clothes together so they could leave, only angering sanders more. As the boy heard the couple argue, he told deputies that “he tried to step in between” his mother and Sanders as Sanders was grabbing his mother, in an apparent attempt to protect her. He said Sanders “picked him up off the ground against his will and authority and forcibly removed him from the residence and put him outside during the argument, causing [the boy] great distress.”
It was around then that, getting dressed, the woman called 911.
Sanders told deputies that while there had been an argument over relationship issues, they both “got in each other’s faces, but the most physical contact was a bump. The shattered glass was from him dropping the glass, not throwing it against the wall, though he said the woman threw something at him, whi8ch he blocked. Sanders told deputies that he told the woman he wanted her out of the house, “and began to grab her by her waist and tried to force her out of the garage door while she was naked.” According to the report, he also “admitted that he then put his arm around [the boy] and began to force him out of the garage door telling him to leave,” then dumped two of the woman’s dresser drawer contents out on the driveway.
Sanders was required to surrender all firearms pending the resolution of the case, and have no contact with either the woman or the child. He was booked at the Flagler County jail on $4,000 bond, which he posted, and was released.
Abuse Hotline: Report Abuse Online
The Florida Abuse Hotline accepts reports 24 hours a day and 7 days a week of known or suspected child abuse, neglect, or abandonment and reports of known or suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Please use the links below to report a child or adult abuse.
If you suspect or know of a child or vulnerable adult in immediate danger, call 911.
TTY: 711 or
1-800-955-8771
FAX: 1-800-914-0004
Any person who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that a child is abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent, legal custodian, caregiver, or other person responsible for the child’s welfare is a mandatory reporter. § 39.201(1)(a), Florida Statutes.
To report an allegation in Spanish or Creole, please call 1-800-962-2873, for TTY use 711 or 1-800-955-8771. This toll free number is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with counselors waiting to assist you.
ASF says
It sounds like that the mother was also responsible for placing this 11 year old child in a dangerous and unstable circumstance…perhaps, repeatedly. I hope someone will investigate that possibility because, if they don’t, the pattern might keep repeating itself. And it could get worse.
DP from PC says
People with personality disorders and violent tendencies often do nothing to show that side of them when wooing a partner. People with control and other issues can be highly manipulative, so it’s unfortunate to start shifting blame to her.
People’s situations are more nuanced and complicated than we realize from one article about one aspect of it.
I do hope she can find some help at a domestic violence shelter and figure out a way to move forward with her life for her and her son.
ASF says
If the mother has nothing to worry about in terms of her parental care, then an investigation will reflect that. However, if there is a pattern here that could prove harmful to mniors in her care, then those minors deserve advocacy.