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Wednesday's Final Word
Florida authorities arrested a man last week for stomping his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in May, causing a lacerated liver.
Oscar Cedell Miller, 25, was released almost immediately on a $10,000 bond, and Miami Gardens Police didn’t explain why they waited four months to arrest him.
An arrest report says the investigation began on May 25 when the child’s mother brought him to a Fort Myers hospital because he was complaining of stomach pain. The mother said he had been complaining before the trip to visit her parents, but she assumed it was gas and “did not think anything more of it.”
When the complaints continued after they arrived, however, she took him to the hospital.
“It was presumed the victim had gas pains or constipation issues, therefore, treatment for that began,” the report states. “The victim continued to complain of pain, which prompted further testing on the victim’s abdominal area. Medical staff discovered the victim had lacerations on his liver, which was consistent with physical trauma to the area.”
The police report says that the mother told investigators she left her three children with Miller while she went to work two days before the Fort Myers trip. When she came home on her lunch break, the 3-year-old told her he was scared and wanted to go with his mother.
“At that time, she left the residence with all three kids. While in the car, she noticed bruising on the left side of the victim’s face,” the report states. “(The mother) asked the victim what had happened and the victim replied that Oscar had struck him in the stomach with a closed fist.”
The Children’s Advocacy Center of South Florida interviewed the boy on May 29, and he told staff that his “tummy needed medicine” and that Miller “stepped on my tummy with his foot.”
Police spoke with Miller last week, four months after the incident, and he told them the boy “pooped on the floor and to discipline him, he began yelling at him, but never hit the child.”
He said his girlfriend was “upset” because he yelled at the children and moved out.
Miller has been charged with a single count of child abuse.
