David Gonzales and Anita Valdez, San Antonio, Texas couple arrested handcuffing their young children to bed as punishment along with forcing the children to eat peppers and other ongoing tortures.
A San Antonio, Texas couple are accused of handcuffing their children to bed posts along with forcing them to eat hot peppers as punishment along with other forms of ongoing torture at their Bexar County home.
David Gonzales, 30, and Anita Valdez were arrested last week after two of their children told the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) that they had been handcuffed to their bed and continuously abused.
Notice of the calamities came when officials were called to the 1100 block of Tecumseh Drive for a call of unlawful restraint and injury to a child, after one of the children who had come for a weekend visit told her biological mom of what she’d endured, KENS5 reported.
San Antonio couple handcuff, torture their ‘kids for their own safety’
A 7-year-old girl told her mother that she had been handcuffed to her bed overnight while visiting her father, David Gonzales and her stepmother, Anita Valdez. The child said both her father and stepmother locked her hands to the bed, and she woke up still restrained until her 9-year-old sister helped her out.
The mother immediately called Gonzales to confront him. According to reports, he admitted to it but refused to explain why. Angry and alarmed, the mother contacted authorities.
When investigators with BCSO arrived, more details came out. The 7-year-old said the handcuffs hurt her wrists and that this was not the first time—and that the ‘punishment’ happened often. Another child, Valdez’s 6-year-old daughter, also told police she was regularly handcuffed, sometimes with a rope tied to one hand, ‘for her own safety.’
The girl said she was only allowed to eat once a day and was punished with extremely spicy peppers if she disobeyed. She also claimed Gonzales hit her with a belt, with officers later finding bruises on her legs and thighs.
The child mentioned the last time she was handcuffed was when she was caught eating in the bathroom because she was still hungry, KSAT reported.
The children also mentioned being forced to take ‘nasty-tasting gummies’ that made them sleepy, and that Valdez would rub oil on their cuts that burned. They all said they felt unsafe in the home.
Police searched the house and found three sets of handcuffs attached to the children’s beds, along with straps.
Both Gonzales and Valdez were arrested and charged with injury to a child and unlawful restraint under the age of 17. Valdez faces an additional unlawful restraint charge.
Jail records show the father and stepmother making bond and no longer in custody.
