photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in March of 2022. The center houses the Douglas County District Court and other county services.

A Lawrence man was ordered to stand trial on Thursday for allegedly spanking a 4-year-old boy so violently that the child could not sit down and required medical attention.

The man, Dominick Tyler Valencia, 24, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one count of felony child abuse, according to charging documents. The charge is a level-4 felony and carries a presumptive prison sentence between 38 and 172 months, or a little over three years to more than 14 years, if convicted. The charge relates to an incident between Aug. 30, 2022, and Sept. 1, 2022.

During a preliminary hearing on Thursday, the child’s father testified that he shares custody with the child’s mother and they have alternated custody week to week since the child was born. He said that the child’s mother drops the child off at the father’s driveway and usually waits to see the child get up to the house before leaving, but this time, the mother immediately drove off after the child got out of the car.

The father said he didn’t give the mother driving away so quickly too much thought until later when the 4-year-old said that his bottom hurt and that he couldn’t sit down. The father then checked for injuries.

“It was bad; I can hardly describe it. His butt was black,” the father testified.

The father said the child’s bottom was covered in bruises. He said the child couldn’t sit and insisted on lying on his side. The father said they used ice packs and pain medication but that nothing helped.

The father asked the boy what happened and the child told him that a man at his mother’s had spanked him.

The next day the father took the child to the police station in Lawrence to report abuse and then to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, for an examination.

The pediatrician who examined the boy, Jennifer Hansen, testified that the child’s bruises were extensive and ran along the top part of his bottom from one hip to the other; the child would not sit on the examining table and asked to lie on his side. Hansen said that a child receiving a bruise from a fall or an accident was common but that the extent of the bruising this child had received was consistent with abuse.

“His entire butt was purple,” Hansen said.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum asked what could have caused such an injury.

“Violent blunt force trauma to the buttocks,” Hansen replied.

Tatum then asked what Hansen believed the injury was from.

“I think it’s from a spanking,” Hansen said.

Tatum asked if spanking children is legal in Kansas, to which Hansen said “according to the statute,” but she specified that it is not legal if the spanking leads to injury.

Hansen said in addition to the bruising on the bottom, the child also had a bruise on his ear that did not look like it was caused by a fall or accident and was consistent with someone grabbing or pulling on the ear very hard. She said the boy also had petechiae, or burst blood vessels, near his eyes and on his cheeks that were consistent with a person who has spent a lot of time crying very hard.

Hansen said she diagnosed the child as having been a victim of child abuse due to the “severity and volume of bruising” on the child’s buttocks.

A Lawrence police detective with the Special Victims Unit, Evan Curtis, testified that he questioned Valencia after the alleged abuse had been reported.

Curtis said that Valencia told him that on Aug. 30 the child had found some glitter and spread it all over the house.

Valencia told police that he put the child in time-out while Valencia cleaned up the glitter, Curtis said. Valencia said the child then came out of time-out and threw a toy at his younger sibling, which upset Valencia, who then spanked the child to discipline him, Curtis testified.

Valencia said he was regretful and did not mean to injure the child, Curtis said. Valencia told Curtis he checked the child for injuries after the spanking and didn’t see any marks, Curtis said.

Valencia’s attorney, Cooper Overstreet, asked Curtis if Valencia said he struck the child because he was angry at the child, to which Curtis said “no”; Valencia said “he was upset and that he spanked him — not that he was upset at the child,” Curtis said.

The child’s father testified that the child is now living with him full time. He said that after the incident the child displayed symptoms that the father believed to be post-traumatic stress disorder but that he is no longer exhibiting those symptoms. The father said he wasn’t sure if the child should testify because he didn’t know “how he would react” to seeing Valencia again.

Valencia is scheduled to appear in court on June 20 to be arraigned. Overstreet said he would also be seeking a child-abuse expert to testify on behalf of Valencia and would ask the court for a special hearing at that time.

Valencia has been free on a $15,000 cash or surety bond since his arrest in February. The Journal-World has requested his booking photo from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.