An anonymous tip allegedly brought the state Department of Children and Families to the home of 31-year-old Kevin Grant and his wife, 29-year-old Elizabeth Baptiste on October 1.
An interview at the police station was scheduled for October 8 at 11:30 am for Grant and Baptiste, but 15 minutes after the interview was scheduled to begin, Grant notified the police that they would not be attending on the recommendation of their attorney.
Grant was arrested on the 16th on an active warrant. He has been charged with risk of injury to a child, second degree assault, intentional cruelty to persons, disorderly conduct and second degree reckless endangerment.
Baptiste was arrested the same day and charged with risk of injury to a child, conspiracy to commit/ intentional cruelty to persons, conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct and second degree reckless endangerment.
Grant was released after posting a $25,000 bond and Baptiste was released after posting a $10,000 bond. Court records indicate that the offense date goes back to July 1, 2020.
They have not yet entered pleas for the charges against them and are due to appear back in Superior Court in Waterbury on November 10.
Citing the arrest warrant affidavit that had been filed, the Hartford Courant recounts some of the more than a dozen instances of abuse that were outlined in the document as recounted by one of Baptiste's sons at the hands of Grant.
During an interview with police, the child explained that in June he had been sitting on the couch watching television while his brother was playing. His brother fell and "cracked his head open." Despite claiming that he had nothing to do with his brother's injuries, he reported that everyone began blaming him.
The boy stated that Grant had told him to go into the bathroom and look at the injury his brother had sustained. He additionally reported that he was hit with a belt over his whole body and even picked up by the back of his neck and thrown across the room.
After this, the boy stated that he was forced to stand in a corner for about a week, even while eating, and that he “wasn’t allowed to eat everything good that the rest of the family was eating.”
The boy says that he was forced to sleep in a trailer outside of the residence one night before being locked into the garage for a number of nights and eventually, he was locked into a laundry room for approximately four months and told that he could only knock on the door if he had to use the restroom. Grant though, reportedly would get angry with him for even knocking then and would tell him to pee in his pants.
While the child stated that he was provided with a mattress on the floor of the laundry room, he stated that he was only let out to use the restroom, eat, or do school work.
“Kevin would constantly do things to him and make him do things that would hurt him,” the boy reported to investigators.
These things included being forced to kneel on uncooked rice for a day, having a bottle rocket set off while it was in his mouth, doing push-ups until he could no longer move his arms, and standing on a ladder with one foot while holding the other in the air. While standing this way, the boy said that Grant would place tacks on the rungs of the ladder and underneath it, forcing the boy to step down on them when he reached a point of fatigue.
It is not known why the boy was singled out from his other siblings for such abuse or if any of the other children have been placed into protective custody.