SEATTLE (AP) - A 26-year-old Seattle woman was charged last week in connection with the physical abuse of three of her children, who were removed from her home and placed in protective custody a year ago and only recently disclosed the abuse, according to King County prosecutors.
Moriah Connor was arrested earlier this month and has since been charged with first-degree assault on a child, second-degree assault on a child and witness tampering, accused of telling the children to lie about how they received their injuries, charging papers say.
She remains jailed on $500,000 bail, The Seattle Times reported. It wasn’t immediately known if she has a lawyer.
In March 2019, charging papers say a Seattle teacher became concerned about an 8-year-old’s bruises. The boy and his mother claimed a bruise on his cheek was from a car accident and the bruises on his arms were the result of the boy falling out of bed, according to the charges. The teacher later recalled other times the boy had appeared with bruises, charges say.
After the school contacted Child Protective Services, a social worker sent photos of the boy’s arms to a doctor, who determined the child’s bruises were from being hit with a rod or switch-like object.
Seattle police and CPS took the boy, his younger sister and two younger brothers into protective custody a couple days later. The children were examined at Seattle Children’s Hospital and all of them had “countless injuries” on their bodies, including bruises and scars, the charges say.
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