Published: May 23, 2008 09:56 am      

15-year-old suffers bat beating

Danie M. Huffman

wdreporter2@yahoo.com

A Poolville man admitted to authorities he beat his step-son with a baseball bat Wednesday morning.

Jody Albert Dunn, 44, remains in jail on a $30,000 bond after his arrest Wednesday.

Lori, a neighbor, saw the boy walking down the street moments after the incident and stopped to helped him.

She said when she first saw him she thought he had been in a car wreck.

“It was real obvious he was hurt bad,” Lori said. “I put him in the car and brought him back to my house and waited on the police to get here. He was hit hard enough that he had abrasions as well as knots about the size of a lemon. Especially the one on his back. It was an awful hard blow to scrape his skin like it did. He could hardly move his elbow. He was bleeding.”

She asked the boy if this sort of thing happened frequently. He told her no, but that it had happened in the past.

“I asked him what started it and he said he didn’t want to get out of bed because he was sick the day before and didn’t want to go to school,” she said. “He said, ‘My step dad said if I didn’t get out of bed he was going to kick my [expletive].’ He told me he took a blow to the elbow and rolled over to get away from it and he hit him in the back and hit him again in the knee.”

The boy was taken to Weatherford Regional Medical Center where he was treated for his injuries and later released.

The arresting officer, Parker County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Preston, immediately filed an emergency protective order against Dunn on behalf of the victim.

“I felt it was necessary in this case for the protection of the boy,” Preston said.

The deputy added he spoke to Dunn, who admitted to assaulting his step-son.

“He told me when he entered the room with the bat, he only meant to use it in an attempt to scare him,” Preston said. “He said he never meant to use it. He told me, ‘I just wanted to get his undivided attention.’ It escalated into a verbal argument, Mr. Dunn lost his temper and hit him.”

The probable cause affidavit signed by Preston stated “I observed there to be injuries consistent with those caused by blunt force with a hard object to the left knee, left elbow and back of [the victim] and photographed those injuries.”

Preston said the boy’s injuries appeared severe with bruises, marks on his knee, elbow and across his spine.

A sheriff’s report stated there had been past discipline issues with the boy.

Lori said the incident was traumatizing and “shook the whole neighborhood.”

“He might be labeled as a bad kid, but he didn’t deserve that,” Lori said. “I told him I didn’t care what he’d done or how bad he was he didn’t deserve to be hit with a baseball bat.”

Lori said she is appalled at the low amount of bail set on Dunn.

“Somebody who is caught with drugs gets that sort of bond,” she said. “I don’t understand how somebody can hit a juvenile with a baseball bat and have their bond set at $30,000.”

Dunn was transported to the Parker County Justice Center where he was officially charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The charge is a second-degree felony. If convicted, Dunn faces two to 20 years in prison with a fine of up to $10,000.