CEDAR COUNTY, Mo. -- The Cedar County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) has charged a man from Stockton Wednesday with allegedly abusing and assaulting his seven-year-old child.

Online court records state that Michael Shane Rush Jr. is charged with abuse or neglect of a child and second-degree domestic assault.

According to the probable cause statement, Rush's ex-wife was notified by Rush's current wife that her seven-year-old daughter was allegedly spanked while over at their house during a visitation on July 27.

On July 28, Rush's ex-wife took her daughter to see her pediatrician for bruises on her bottom, which she thought were caused by her jumping off the back porch that day. The pediatrician told her that the bruises were not self-inflicted, but instead were from being hit several times. The daughter told the doctor that she was hit many times by Rush for running in the hallway and said she couldn't tell anyone or else "her dad would really hurt her next time."

When her mother asked about bruises on her neck and scratches on her back, she relayed an incident to her mother where because she threw a stuffed animal off her bed, Rush raised her to the ceiling, choked her in the neck and dropped her, causing her to sustain injuries to her back and bruises on her leg.

In interviews with the Child Advocacy Center, her three siblings said they witnessed the spanking incident and that Rush told them he would go to jail if they talked about it.

News Source : https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/stockton-man-charged-with-child-abuse-assault/