Corporal Rex Jones Charged with Child Abuse

DeSoto Police arrested Dallas Police Sr. Corporal Rex Jones on a charge of child abuse.

DeSoto Police say Rex Nathaniel Jones, 41, beat his 13-year-old son with an extension cord, a belt and his fists.

Jones is a Senior Corporal in the Dallas Police Department. He lives in DeSoto, and police there arrested him this morning.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit for Jones, the incident happened in late February. It says the child was asleep in his bed at about 2:00 a.m. when Jones started hitting him with an extension cord. "The victim advised he was asleep on the couch late at night with the TV on, which angered his father," explained Lieutenant Mike Sullivan with the DeSoto Police Department.

The child told police Jones told him to go to the garage and stand still while Jones hit him across the buttocks with a belt.

The boy said he moved while getting hit. When he did, Jones allegedly grabbed him, pinned him to the floor, and started punching him with his fists. "While being pinned down, listed victim stated that the Defendant hit him about the chest, back, and head with the defendant's knuckles," said Sullivan.

The teenager said he broke free from his father and started to run. When he did, the affidavit says Jones struck his son in the face with the belt.

Jones then told his son that he would receive a beating every day for the rest of the week, according to the affidavit.

It goes on to say that when he got home from school at about 3:00 p.m. that same day, Jones met him in the living room, struck him several times with a belt and sent him to his room.

The boy reported the incident to a school counselor the next day; school officials alerted authorities.

The affidavit indicates that Jones has been called to his son's school several times in the past to deal with disciplinary issues involving the boy, and that Jones beat his son in response to some of those incidents.

The DeSoto Police Officer who wrote the affidavit said he photographed several bruises and marks on the son's body, including some that appear to have been made by a belt or extension cord.

Jones is in the DeSoto jail, charged with injury to a child - a third degree felony. A Dallas Police Department spokesman says Jones is assigned to the department's training academy. He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

______________

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Officer-Accused-of-Beating-Son-Arrested.html