JURY FINDS SCHWEPKER GUILTY

On Friday, September 21, 2001, an eight-man, four-woman jury found Eric J. Schwepker, 30, of County Road 205, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, guilty of three felony counts of child abuse and one misdemeanor count of assault for beatings inflicted upon his son, age 11 at the time, in January and February of 2001. The case was tried in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Missouri, in Hillsboro, with Circuit Judge Gary Kramer presiding.

The boy, now 12, testified that on Super Bowl Sunday, January 28, 2001, his father had whipped him with a belt upon his buttocks several times, hit him repeatedly on the buttocks with a baseball bat, and hit his toes with a hammer. The boy testified that five days later, on February 2, 2001, his father had back-handed him upon the face. The boy ran away after the last incident, reporting the abuse to the Chaffee Police Department and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department later that same evening.

Dr. Paul Caruso, a pediatrician on staff with Southeast Hospital, testified that he had examined the boy on February 2, 2001, after he was brought to the hospital by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department. Dr. Caruso described the extensive bruising on the child’s body for the jury, explaining that the bruises covered the boy’s buttocks and upper legs and upper arms. Dr. Caruso testified that the extent of the bruising was inconsistent with normal parental discipline and the blows causing such bruises would have caused extreme pain.

Detective Rhonda Westrich of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department also described the injuries to the jury, using photographs her department had taken during its investigation.

At the trial, which lasted two days, the defendant took the stand and denied ever striking the child with a bat or hammer. He denied back-handing the child’s face. Although he admitted striking the child three times with a belt on one occasion, he claimed to have used very little force and claimed the child had made up the rest of the story.

In his instructions to the jury, Judge Kramer informed the panel that in Missouri, a parent is entitled to use force to discipline his child only as long as the force is not reasonably calculated to lead to death, serious physical injury, extreme pain or extreme emotional distress. Whether the use of this force was justified as parental discipline was one of the issues the jury had to consider.

"This wasn’t lawful parental discipline," said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Scott A. Lipke during closing arguments. "This was a brutal beating calculated to cause extreme pain. This was child abuse."

At one point during the boy’s testimony, Lipke asked the child about his feelings for his father after the beatings. The boy responded, "Deep inside, I still love him because he’s my father. On the outside, I hate him for what he did to me."

During his cross-examination of the child, defense attorney Stephen C. Wilson pointed out discrepancies in the boy’s testimony, including uncertainty about the number of times he had been hit with the bat. In closing argument, Lipke responded: "The child wasn’t counting the blows, he was enduring them."

After the verdict, Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle praised the jury’s decision. "This jury has sent a strong message that beating a child with a baseball bat, a hammer and a belt crosses the line of reasonable parental discipline and becomes a criminal act. A child who is being abused by a parent is living a tragic and nightmarish existence. Protecting these children is a top priority for law enforcement officers in this county."

Judge Kramer scheduled sentencing for November 13, 2001 in Hillsboro. Each felony charge carries a range of punishment up to 7 years in prison. The misdemeanor assault charge carries a range of punishment up to one year in the county jail. The defendant remains free on bond pending sentencing.