Mommy’s Little Helper: Georgia Man Charged With Slapping Toddler to Stop Her From Crying at Wal-Mart

There is an interesting criminal and torts case out of Georgia. Roger Stephens, 61, is accused of slapping a 2-year-old child across the face when she would not stop crying. That is bad enough, but the child was not his.

The mother told police that her child was crying in a Stone Mountain Wal-Mart when Stephens, 61, walked up and declared “if you don’t shut that baby up, I will shut her up for you.” When the child continued to cry, the mother said that in a different aisle Stephens grabbed her and slapped the child across the face four or five times. She says that Stephens then told her, See, I told you I would shut her up,.”

A bystander then stepped forward and grabbed Stephens and held him for police. Stephens reportedly apologized to the mother after police arrived, but it still constitutes a classic crime as well as a tort of assault and battery.

He has been charged with felony cruelty to children.

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