Pair arrested on child abuse charges
BY AMANDA BLAND World Staff Writer
Monday, September 10, 2012
A Tulsa mother and her husband were arrested Friday after the woman’s three young children were found with several injuries that detectives consider suspicious.
Matthew Charles Oeth, 26, was charged Friday with three counts of child abuse by injury, Tulsa County District Court records show.
The charges allege that Oeth willfully and maliciously used unreasonable force on his wife’s three children - ages 3, 4 and 6 - over three weeks in August.
Tulsa Police Cpl. Greg Smith said detectives observed marks on two of the children that appeared to be caused by a belt. A 4-year-old boy suffered the injuries to his face, stomach and arm. He was also recently hospitalized with a head injury, Smith said.
The children’s mother, Angelica Renee Dudley, 26, is charged with permitting child abuse by injury, according to the filings.
Detectives say the children have suffered at least seven suspicious injuries while in Oeth’s care since the beginning of the year.
The Department of Human Services has taken custody of the children.
Oeth pleaded guilty to 11 counts of second-degree burglary in 2006. He served nine months of a four-year prison sentence.
He was charged in two misdemeanor cases filed in December 2009 alleging domestic assault and battery. One case was dismissed after a witness for the prosecution failed to appear. He was sentenced to one year in the Tulsa Jail in the other.
Associated Images:
From left to right, Matthew Charles Oeth and Angelica Renee Dudley
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