BY BRUNO MATARAZZO JR.
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WATERBURY — A Naugatuck father faces two years in prison on child abuse charges.
Contributed
Kevin Grant, 34, entered pleas of nolo contendere on Monday to charges of risk of injury to a minor and second-degree assault in connection of a with a number of child abuse incidents against his son.
Earlier this month, a judge sentenced Grant’s girlfriend at the time, Elizabeth Baptiste, 32, to six months in prison on charges of risk of injury to a minor.
Grant likely faces additional prison time on other child abuse charges.
He will be sentenced Sept. 6.
Naugatuck police first arrested Grant in 2020 after an anonymous complaint to the state Department of Children and Families that Grant was locking his child in the laundry room.
The victim told authorities that the alleged punishments followed an incident in June when a younger sibling fell and “cracked his head open” while playing, according to Grant’s arrest warrant.
The victim said Grant blamed him for the incident and that Grant hit him repeatedly with a belt.
The punishments continued, police say. According to the warrant, the victim told authorities Grant forced the child to stand in a corner and face the wall for a week.
On the night his sibling was hurt, Grant made him sleep in a trailer outside and the garage. Then, he slept in the laundry room for four months.
Grant told a DCF worker he only put the child in the laundry room as punishment because he can get physical with his siblings, the warrant states.
According to police, Grant also forced the victim to kneel on uncooked rice, drink hot sauce and do push-ups until he couldn’t move his arms. He was also forced to stand on a ladder, which had tacks on the steps and under it, with one foot in the air. The victim told authorities when he couldn’t hold his foot up any longer he had to step on the tacks.
Police say Baptiste was aware of the abuse.
The victim and two other juveniles home when authorities investigated on Oct. 1 were taken to a family member’s house.
