[PHOTO CREDIT: Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
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LEESBURG, Florida – A woman’s claim a juvenile threw a knife at her and threatened to throw a jar of urine on her wasn’t enough to keep her out of jail, according to an arrest affidavit.
Ciara Summers, 31, – who has been booked into the Lake County Jail at least a dozen times – was charged with child abuse Monday after deputies say she hit the female child with a belt and left a welt approximately 6 inches long. According to the affidavit deputies responded to 1227 Pioneer Trail in reference to a verbal disturbance. Summers told deputies the child urinated on her cover and asked to use Summers’ cover. Summers refused and handed her another cover. Summers then told deputies the child threatened to throw a jar of urine on her and her girlfriend, Erika Rutherford, and then threw a kitchen knife at her, the affidavit states.
Summers then admitted she struck the child with a belt. Summers claimed to have a video of the alleged urine incident, but the affidavit states the video only showed the non-confrontational child holding a mason jar to her mouth and a flashlight in her hand.
The child told deputies she requested a cover because she was cold and the bed sheet provided by Summers wasn’t keeping her warm. Summers became upset and struck her with a flashlight and a belt, according to the affidavit.
Summers is being held in the Lake County Jail on $10,000 bond.
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James Hope is a Florida Bar Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer who has been practicing criminal law in Tavares, Florida, since 1987. He has also been the Publisher and Executive Editor of Lake Legal News since 2009. He may be contacted at LakeLegalNews@gmail.com, or through his website at www.AttorneyJamesHope.com. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bonnie Whicher]
