Provo, Utah couple, Joseph Maeser Mitchell and Ilaria Catherina Mitchell charged with child felony child abuse after waterboarding nine year old daughter as form of punishment (on three different occasions).
A Provo, Utah couple have been arrested after allegedly waterboarding their nine year old daughter as a ‘form of punishment.’
Booked on one count of felony child abuse were husband and wife, Joseph Maeser Mitchell, 29, and Ilaria Catherina Mitchell, 28.
‘The nine-year-old disclosed that her father, Joseph Mitchell, and her stepmother, Ilaria Mitchell, have punished her three separate times by putting a towel over her face and pouring water on it,’ according to the police report obtained by Gephardt Daily.
‘The girl went into detail saying that Joseph and Ilaria would take her to the bathroom and tie her hands behind her back.
‘They would then hold her down in the bathtub and place a towel over her face and pour water on it.
The report stated the 9 year old ‘cannot breathe and it hurts when this happens’.
The girl also told police that her step-mother punching in the nose with a closed fist, causing it to bleed, and that the alleged abuse happened at least three times.
Authorities said that the child was taken to a hospital where she was treated for wrist injuries.
The injuries are said to be consistent with her being tied down and having her hands bound.
Police said that Joseph Mitchell was also found with a credit card in the name of his wife’s 7-year-old nephew.
Authorities also charged him with unlawful possession of a financial card, a third-degree felony.
According to court documents, in 2017, Mitchell pleaded no contest to having an animal running at large in exchange for a charge of animal cruelty being dismissed. In the year 2013, court records showed him plead guilty to disorderly conduct as he made “unreasonable noises in public place” in a domestic violence case.
In exchange for his plea, five counts of domestic violence were dismissed.
