Boy flags down FedEx driver after being beaten

A 12-year-old boy who flagged down a FedEx driver for help in Port Washington last week told authorities his father had beaten him after apparently becoming enraged because he did not take his cell phone with him when he went on a bike ride for gym class, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court. 

The officer who responded to the FedEx driver’s call said the boy was trembling and clearly had been crying.

The boy’s father, a 37-year-old Port Washington man, has been charged with felony child abuse. Ozaukee Press is not naming him to protect the identity of his son.

According to the complaint, the boy told authorities that on Wednesday, Sept. 23, he and a friend went on a bike ride for gym class. A typical phy-ed assignment on days when students are learning online at home is to go for a bike ride or run.

About 15 minutes into the ride, the boy’s father called the boy’s friend, asked to talk to his son and ordered him to return home. The boy told police that he forgot to take the cell phone he and his brother share with him on the ride and his father was extremely angry.

The boy said he knew his father was going to beat him so he left his bicycle helmet on, adding that his dad had hit him in the head before, the complaint states.

When the boy arrived home, his father ordered him to go to the garage. When the boy didn’t walk fast enough, his father grabbed his arm and dragged him to the garage.

The boy said his dad spanked him, hit him on the back and struck him once in the back of his head before repeatedly throwing him to the ground. His father then threw his son’s bicycle into the garage, damaging it. 

The boy said his father ordered him to go to his room, where he stayed until he heard his mother come home. That’s when he asked his brother for the cell phone so he could call his grandmother and 911 but instead decided to leave the house and go to the police station. But worried that his dad might catch him on the way, the boy flagged down the passing FedEx driver.

During a court hearing last week, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain set the man’s bail at a $2,500 signature bond and ordered him not to have contact with his son except in a counseling setting and not to possess or consume alcohol or drugs that have not been prescribed by a physician.