Woman charged with assault after
disciplining daughter
December 14, 2006
NASHUA, N.H. --A woman was charged
with assault after she forced her 10-year-old girl to stand in a
corner all night twice to discipline her, spraying water on her to
keep her awake, police said.
Theresa Bergeron, 35, was arraigned
Wednesday on a second-degree assault charge and ordered held on
$10,000 bail. Her daughter suffered swelling and bruises to her feet
and has been removed from Bergeron's custody pending further
hearings.
"There were several allegations of
abuse or assault, the most egregious being that the juvenile was
made to stand in one location for 16 hours, at which time the victim
was dressed only in undergarments," Lt. Jeffrey Bukhunt said.
Investigators said the girl told
them that the same thing happened the previous night, and she was
forced to write, "I will stop being ignorant and defiant" in a
notebook while Bergeron called her vulgar names.
Bergeron's daughter also had been
forced to write, "I will stop farting it's rude" numerous times in
the book, police said.
School officials called police when
a teacher noticed that the child was having trouble staying awake.
"The child was a fourth-grade
student, and the teacher noticed she was falling asleep in class and
was noticeably limping," Bukhunt said. "That's what raised the
attention of the teacher."
At school, Bergeron's daughter told
officials that she once spilled milk from her morning cereal and was
forced to eat from the same bowl for dinner after it sat in milk all
day, police said.
Investigators said that on another
occasion, the girl was laughing in the shower and Bergeron denied
her soap. She also told police that she was locked in her bedroom at
night and not allowed to use the bathroom, forcing her to urinate
out a window or in a heating vent.
A teacher told police that Bergeron
once made her daughter wear a diaper, and sent her to school with a
sign on her backpack reading "I wear diapers."
Bergeron is being held on $10,000
bail on a second-degree assault charge. She faces a hearing on Dec.
26 in Nashua District Court.
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