Inset, top to bottom: Mekayla Beard and Joseph Wiles (Harrah Police Department). Background: The home where they allegedly abused Wiles’ 8-year-old son (KWTV).
A 43-year-old father and his 30-year-old wife were arrested in Oklahoma for allegedly beating the man’s 8-year-old son with numerous household items and forcing the child to live in deplorable conditions that left him covered from head to toe in bug bites.
Joseph Wiles and Mekayla Beard were taken into custody earlier this month and charged with two counts each of felony child neglect, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Beard, who allegedly claimed a Child Protective Services told her that beating kids was permissible, was also charged with one count of felony child abuse, and Wiles was charged with one count of felony enabling child abuse.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers with the Harrah Police Department at about 6:54 p.m. on July 17 responded to a report of child abuse at a mobile home park located only a block from the police station. The reporting party was a neighbor who told police she hadn’t seen the victim in a long time until earlier in the day when the boy was allowed to visit with her, which is when she saw that he was covered in bruises and bug bites.
When asked about the abuse, the victim had a disturbing response, telling police that when his stepmother asked him about a word in a book, and he didn’t know, she told him to “bend over so she can give me a butt whoopin,” the affidavit said. The boy pleaded with her to stop, saying, “please don’t, please don’t,” but it allegedly had no effect.
The victim said Beard then started hitting him “wherever she wanted, here, here, here, and everywhere,” pointing to multiple bruises on him.
Beard allegedly told him to bend over again, and when the victim refused, Beard allegedly said, “I’m just going to hit you wherever it lands.”
“[The victim] indicated that even when he fell off the couch and onto the floor from trying to protect himself, he was told (by Beard), ‘I don’t care, I’m going to whoop you wherever,’” the affidavit states.
The victim told police he couldn’t feel anything from his hips and upper and lower buttocks due to the abuse, explaining that Beard used a wooden paddle to beat him that eventually broke in half. He also said his dad was home and saw the abuse take place, the affidavit said.
Police said the child had bruises “all over his body” and an “enormous amount of bug bites from his head to his feet,” some of which appeared to be potentially infected.
Officers then spoke to Beard, who produced “a wooden paddle wrapped in black electrical tape” to repair the break.
“Beard told me that last night she gave [the victim] a spanking with the paddle because he was lying,” the affidavit states.
She also allegedly advised that she used a metal spatula and a belt to discipline the kids.
Beard said the victim began “thrusting around” and telling her she was not allowed to hit him because she was “not his momma.” She then advised that she hit him on his butt.
“Beard advised the only reason she uses the paddle on the children is because Child Protective Services told her that ‘as long as it’s on the bottom or anywhere else, it’s okay,” the affidavit states. “Beard reiterated to me that CPS told her ‘as long as it’s on the bottom, it’s not abuse.’”
Police Chief Marty Burns told Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV that the victim suffered “the darkest black and blue I’ve ever seen,” adding that he was “covered from head to toe” with bug bites.
Beard and Wiles were arrested and brought to the Oklahoma County Detention Center, where they’ve remained on $50,000 bond.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
