Two charged with child abuse
August 19, 2018
A woman from Medford and a man from Alva are facing Woods County child abuse felony charges.
Serena Killian, 24, of Medford, the mother of the 6-year-old girl involved, is charged with child abuse by injury and enabling child abuse by injury. Each of the two felonies is punishable by imprisonment for not more than life or up to one year in the county jail or by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, or both.
Lantz McNeil Mathers, 35, of Alva, has been charged with child abuse by injury in the same case.
According to court documents, on July 24 Alva Police Officer Sean Farris was contacted by the Enid Police Department about a child abuse report where the actual abuse had allegedly occurred in Alva. The report had been filed by the girlfriend of the child’s father who reported she picked up the girl from her mother, Killian, and discovered they had stayed at the home of Killian’s boyfriend Mathers in Alva. She said the girl complained her butt hurt, and she found significant bruising. The girl said she had been spanked by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
Enid Police Department took the report on July 22 and made a referral to Oklahoma DHS Child Protective Services (CPS).
Farris accompanied a DHS CPS worker to Mathers’ residence on July 25 while they conducted their interview. His affidavit states Mathers admitted to spanking the girl several times with spankings consisting of several swats with a wooden paddle. According to the affidavit, Killian also admitted to spanking the girl at least once with the wooden paddle.
Mathers stated it was his belief that as long as he did not “break the skin” when spanking that it could not be considered abuse, according to the affidavit. Killian also told the CPS worker she had noticed the significant bruising and swelling of the girl’s buttocks when she took her with her to work that night. Killian is a certified nurse aid and apparently recognized the bruising and swelling was significant enough that she had the girl sit on ice packs to reduce the swelling.
The girl’s injury was noticed by coworkers of the mother that night and they made an indirect referral through a third party to Woods County Undersheriff Keith Dale. But Dale was unable to pursue the investigation due to the third-hand information, lack of critical details and an inability to confirm information due to the desires of anonymity by the original reporting parties.
DHS has two previous referrals of abuse to the girl that were unsubstantiated at the time of reporting. The child’s father has secured an emergency protective order on her behalf against Killian and Mathers through the district court in Garfield County.
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