He didn’t do his homework, so his mom hit him with a meat tenderizer, cops say
When the 9-year-old boy told his mother he had homework he didn’t do, she began throwing things at him, according to police.
Then, cops say she took a metal meat tenderizer out and hit him.
On Monday, the mother, 44-year-old Martha Ciguenas, was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse for the April 4 incident at their Miami-Dade home.
According to the arrest report, the boy “did not tell the defendant that he had additional homework, while he was out of school during spring break.”
“The defendant became irate, and started questioning the victim on why he did not complete all of his homework during the break,” an officer wrote in the arrest report. “The defendant grabbed a water bottle and threw it towards the victim, but it missed him. The defendant then grabbed her cellphone and threw it at him, but missed again.”
Ciguenas continued to throw things, including the water bottle she picked up, police said. Then, according to the report, Ciguenas grabbed a glass candleholder and “hit him on the head twice, before he was able to protect his head from her strikes.”
“While the victim was protecting his head with his arms, the defendant went to the kitchen, grabbed a metal meat tenderizer, and struck him once on his head, causing lacerations,” the officer wrote in the report. “The defendant continued to yell and scream at the victim while giving him orders to clean his room. While the victim was walking toward his room, the defendant struck him a second time with the meat tenderizer on his left arm, just below his bicep causing spikemarks/indentations (from the meat tenderizer) which bled.”
The child was then examined by the Child Protection Team, which determined his injuries were indicative of physical abuse, according to the police report.
On Monday, Ciguenas was interviewed by Miami-Dade police detectives and she admitted to “throwing several objects” at the child out of “frustration,” police said.
She also stated, according to the report: “I might have hit him while I was throwing the things I grabbed.”
“When the defendant was shown the pictures of the victim’s injuries, the defendant admitted that she caused the injuries when she threw the meat tenderizer, and other objects, but denied striking him intentionally.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2019 at 9:59 PM.
