Monticello Couple Arrested in Child Abuse Case
Published by Joe Burgess May 21st, 2008 in Police /Legal.According to Lt. Rick Rausch of the Drew County Sheriff’s Dept., Christy Upchurch, age 28, was arrested Monday and charged with permitting child abuse to her 3 year old son.
Also related to the incident, Tommy Cheramie, age 23, of Monticello, was arrested and charged with domestic battery in the second degree on Saturday.
Reports show that the boy had 3 or 4 marks on his face, resembling finger prints.
The child has been taken into the DHS custody, to remove him from harm’s way, since the mother’s nearest relative lives in Kentucky.
Upchurch, who has been in the Monticello area around one month, had a first appearance hearing Tuesday, and has bonded out of jail. Cheramie remains in the Drew County Detention Facility on $25,000 bond.
Further investigation led to the indication that the child’s mother was permitting the abuse to occur.
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I would like to thank the person that turned the abuser in. Without their help, who knows what this child might have suffered at the hands of the abuser.
This is really sad that a mother would allow someone to do this to her child. As a mother, I do everything in my power to protect my children. There are plenty of people in this world that want children and can’t have them and we have people like this who would rather beat up an innocent child because they are not man enough or woman enough deal with their frustrations appropriately. A really sad situation. I hope the child is put into a loving and caring home and is shown that parents who love their children don’t abuse them.
No child deserves to be hit. If you can’t control them, there’s help out there that will help you find a way. It starts with Jesus, Love, and a lot of Time.
No child deserves to be abused, and it does start with Jesus, but the bible says “spare the rod spoil the child”. No child needs to be beaten but there is a difference in beating and discipline.
I am in no way saying what happened in this case is right, I was just responding to the “no child should be hit” part.
There is a wrong way to disipline and a right way. To take thier own frustrations out on a child probably had nothing to do with what the child did or didn’t do. Disipline should be done out of love for your children.
Disipline is to teach your child the direction in which to go. It is only for the child’s safety and to be a productive member of society. Just as love is kind and does not physically hurt, it is not quick to anger. Disipline out of love shouldn’t either. Yes, it starts with Jesus.
Let us pray for this child as well as the parents. They need to know Jesus. The baby will be okay. He is out of there.
While it is on my mind, I do have a couple of other comments.
To spare the rod, means to me, that if you do not correct your children, your children are being allowed to walk down a path of corruption. To correct your children in context of “spare the rod” is to be,”sturn”. Show your children love at the same time. Just as a shepard keeping a flock - the rod is for direction.
We are to teach our children in the way that we would have them to go. Kids respond better when they know
that you love them first and foremost. It is when a child is not loved at all that abuse will occur. That is where the difference lies.
I agree totally with you Terrie. Being a father of 4 girls, I know what my parents meant when they said this hurts me more than it does you. Jesus is the answer but sadly we do not go into the comunity and spread that like he wants us to. There are so many abused children right here in our community but alot of us choose to turn a blind eye. In my job I come in contact with alot of abuse and in every situation possible, I try to ask if they know Jesus or if they do, tell them that is one place they need to turn, but I know I dont do enough.
Sadly there are to many parents who dont do any discipline in there childrens lives at all and I have to deal with those children as well. Let us pray for all of our communities children, abused, undisciplined or loved, they all need it.
There is no excuse for child abuse. The general public must convince the lawmakers that the punishment for the offenders are not severe enough. Many of these folks get probation; they should be sentenced just as severely and more so than drug dealers. It makes me ill to think of the physical,emotional, and sexual abuse that children must endure because they have no voice.
I totally agree with the comment above that the punishment should be so much stronger for people who abuse their children (and sex offenders for what it’s worth) What lawmaker thinks to himself “Well maybe it was a one time thing and lets just give him a slap on the wrist and give his kids back”. Ridiculous.
These people need anger management and limited, supervised time with children. It is not fair to a child to have them in that enviornment when they are helpless. I say no mercy- punish them to the full extent of the law- mother included.
The mother should be punished just as severely as the abuser for allowing her child to be abused. Upon reading this article, I asked myself how can a Mother let this happen to her child. As mothers we are to protect our children. She had to see some signs of this happening. This is a very sad situation and my prayers are with the child