GREENFIELD — A toddler told police a woman hit him — leaving large bruises on the boy’s back and legs — because he wasn’t cleaning himself properly during a bath, according to court documents.
Alyssa Winesickle, 23, of Greenfield, was arrested this week on a charge of domestic battery. She was being held in the Hancock County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond at press time.
The alleged incident occurred in late May, according to police.
Staffers at the toddler’s daycare center called 911 after finding bruises on the boy’s body, court documents state.
They found the boy sleeping on his side at naptime, rather than on his back as he usually did. They spotted the marks on his back because his T-shirt had rolled up to reveal them.
When police arrived, the boy told them it was Winesickle, who helped care for him, who hurt him, court documents state.
The toddler said the woman struck him during a recent bath time, court documents state. She’d gotten mad because he “wasn’t washing himself right,” he said.
The toddler repeated the same story when interviewed by a representative from the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Police interviewed the child’s mother, father and sister as part of their investigation.
The boy’s mother said she’d been out of town of about a week prior to the bruises being discovered. She’s left her children in their father’s care, she said.
The boy’s father told police he’d been working long hours, and trusted Winesickle to care for his children. She was often the one who gave them baths and put them to bed, he said.
The boy’s sister told police Winesickle gave her brother a bath on a day before the bruises appeared. The girl said at one point she heard her brother crying from inside the bathroom, court documents state.
Winesickle wouldn’t let her inside the bathroom to see her brother, the girl said, court documents state. She saw Winesickle putting medicine on the boy’s back later that same night, the girl said.
Winesickle denied hurting the boy.
She believed the child might have hurt himself while he was playing, court documents state.
Winesickle admitted to using Fentanyl — a synthetic opioid-based painkiller that is more than 50 times more potent than morphine — around the time the bruises appeared on the boy’s body, court documents state.
Winesickle told police she regularly takes small doses of the drug, but “she never blackouts or has missing time,” court documents state.
Winesickle faces a single Level 5 felony count of domestic battery with bodily injury to a person less than 14. She pleaded not guilt to the allegation during a hearing Tuesday, records show.
The charge she faces carries a potential penalty of one to six years in prison.