By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing woman accused of slapping a 6-year-old boy on the side of his face last summer has been ordered to appear before a Payne County judge on Tuesday for arraignment on a felony child abuse charge filed last week.
Wilma Joanna Robertson, 50, who has also been known as Wilma Joanne Paxton, was arrested Friday and released after posting $5,000 bond, a court official told KUSH.
The alleged incident occurred east of Cushing in rural Drumright on July 28, 2019, according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown.
Robertson was watching the boy at his residence in Payne County when his mother arrived home later that night and saw her seated with the boy on the porch in the dark, the affidavit alleged.
Robertson “informed the mother that the (boy) experienced a temper meltdown and had to be restrained by her,” the affidavit alleged. Robertson said that the child “kicked her in the face while this was happening,” the affidavit alleged.
The boy “did not say anything to his mother and went to bed following her return. Because of the low light on the porch, the mother never saw any marks on (the boy’s) face and did not believe he had been injured while with Robertson,” the affidavit alleged.
“The following morning during breakfast, the mother noticed red marks to (the boy’s) left face and ear. The marks resembled a handprint as if he were struck,” the affidavit alleged.
When the mother asked what happened, the boy said that Robertson hit him in the face, the affidavit alleged.
“Following this, the mother text messaged Robertson to confront her over the marks on his face,” the affidavit alleged.
Robertson initially denied hitting the boy, but then went on to say, “I’m so sorry…I don’t remember smacking his face…Tell them I did it. I will go to jail. I shouldn’t have hit him like that…I am sorry…I feel bad. Please forgive me. I will never put my hands on any child again. Are you done with me? Do you hate me? It wasn’t done maliciously. I really didn’t hit him that hard…I promise. I love you all and I am truly sorry…I will never bother you again. Please tell (the boy) I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt him,” the affidavit alleged.
Three weeks later during an interview at the defendant’s apartment, the investigator alleged, “Robertson told me shortly after she arrived to watch the children, (the boy) began to throw a fit that required Robertson to pin him on the bed for safety.
“Robertson told me she ‘tapped his mouth a couple times’ to tell him ‘that was enough.’ Shortly after this, Robertson said she was done fighting him and let him up,” the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
“I confronted Robertson with the messages she exchanged with the mother; she said she had just awoke and was confused: ‘It was confusing, he hit me, he hit me first…I’m not saying that I hit him back because he hit me, and I got frustrated and that’s when I raised my hands and forget it,"” the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
“Robertson told me she was ‘bi-polar and manic depressive’ and did not remember the entire incident: ‘I don’t think I did it…I don’t think I could slap a kid like that,"” the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
When the investigator observed photos of the boy taken by a nurse-practitioner at the Saville Center in Stillwater, they appeared “to show four distinct marks along the child’s left cheek and neck area,” which indicated that the child was struck in the face with a hand, the affidavit alleged.
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