Christine Elizabeth Garrett, a 55-year-old physician who runs her own practice in Palm Coast with her husband, was arrested on Sunday (Feb. 2) on a felony charge of child abuse when her adopted son called 911.
The boy was locked in the bathroom when Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrived. When he heard then saw law enforcement officers, “he exited the bathroom crying and ran, grabbing onto Deputy Bishop, saying he needed help,” according to the sheriff’s report. The boy, referred to as JG in the report, said he was playing a video game when his mother asked him to clean up his mess. The boy told deputies that “whenever he does not do something he is asked right away his mother hits him.”
In that instance, his mother started yelling at him while holding a trash can and telling him to clean up his food, according to the report. She then allegedly “struck him in the head with the trash can, causing him to fall forward hitting the right side of his face and eye on the computer desk,” the report states. “JG states she then punched him multiple times with a closed fist in the head and chest. JG said his mother then grabbed the computer chair, pulling it out from under him, causing him to fall onto the floor, hitting the back of his head on the wood flooring.”
When his mother allegedly started yelling at his older sister, the boy went to the bathroom, locked the door, and started feeling dizzy as his head hurt. He called 911, he told deputies, because he feared his mother would start hurting his sister. He would later tell paramedics, who also reported to the scene and tended to him, that he felt as if he was going to pass out. He was taken to AdventHealth Palm Coast.
The boy’s sister mostly corroborated her brother’s account. She told deputies that she first heard her mother and brother fighting, then saw her mother hit her brother with the trash can, saw him fall, and saw her mother clap him with an open hand on the head and body, according to the report. The boy’s sister said she then saw her mother forcefully pulling the chair from under her brother, causing him to hit the floor and hit his head. When she yelled for her mother to stop, her mother “turned around and began to yell” at her, allowing the boy to run off.
Garrett told deputies she had asked her son to clean up some wrappers on the floor by his computer. That led to an argument. She “stated she intentionally struck JG with a plastic trash can over the head,” the report states, but nothing else occurred other than him running off and calling 911.
Deputies noticed slight swelling on the right side of the boy’s face and “multiple bruises on his legs and chest.” The swelling on his face got progressively more pronounced as the deputy made contact with the boy at the hospital, where his mother later arrived. The boy’s father, was out of the country, but when deputies reached him, he said his mother, who lives in Ormond Beach, would take custody of the children.
Christine Garrett was placed under arrest for child abuse without great bodily harm, a third-degree felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted, though such first offenses almost never result in incarceration but probation, even if the charge is not pled down.
Garrett, a physician at Garrett Internal Medicine on Leanni Way, was booked at the Flagler County jail on $5,000 bond, which she posted. County Judge Andrea Totten imposed a no-contact order on Garrett, regarding both her children, pending the disposition of the case or an amendment to the order. The order extends to texts or indirect communication relayed through a third party.
Garrett was allowed to return to the house only under a deputy’s supervision. Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis is prosecuting the case. Her arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 25.
The Sheriff’s Office informed the Department of Children and Families of the incident.
