Dwight Howard News: Doctor Says He Abused Son With Belt
Dwight Howard of the Houston Rockets is the latest of professional athlete dads to be under scrutiny for his methods of disciplining his child. TMZ Sports reports that Howard was investigated by the Department of Children and Families in Florida, but there was no arrest made. Then, the story turned.
What appeared to be an open-and-shut case turned when it was discovered that the actual case didn’t occur in Florida — it happened in neighboring Georgia.
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TMZ notes that the law enforcement officials in Florida were not very helpful in expediting the transferring of files to Georgia, but that changed Monday. TMZ quoted a Georgia law enforcement official as saying this:
"“People who were not so forthcoming before today have been. (The case) has now been raised to the top of the list.”"
This comes on the heels of the decision made by the NFL to suspend star running back Adrian Peterson for the entirety of the season for child abuse charges committed in Minnesota.
Howard has admitted to hitting his son Braylon with a belt, but similar to Peterson, he rationalized it by saying that’s how he grew up and he didn’t realize it was wrong to do so.
The TMZ report that was acquired from the Department of Children and Families noted that Braylon had “a linear bruise and patterned abrasions consistent with the history given by Braylon of being struck with a belt numerous times by his father…(the injuries were) consistent with Braylon being struck with the buckle end of the belt…with excessive force, resulting in soft tissue injuries such as bruising and abrasions.”
It is worth noting that the State of Florida cleared Howard of any charges and it was only when the revelation that the act occurred in a different state did the new potential criminal charges pop up. Howard’s legal representation noted that and also mentioned that “It is appalling to see a mother use her son as a pawn against his father in an attempt to extract money, which is what is happening in this case.”