Four Adults Arrested In Horrific Child Abuse Case Involving Stun Gun: ‘This Was Torture,’ Says Sheriff

Four adults have been arrested in the wake of recent child abuse allegations, including the claim that a stun gun was used as a method of discipline against the nine children, ranging in age from 7 to 13, ABC News affiliate WJBF reports.

The four adults live together, with a total of nine children, in the same house, located in Polk County, Florida.

Eduardo Vazquez, age 22; his girlfriend Elizabeth Tarvin, age 33; William Torres-Morales, age 22; and his girlfriend, Veronica Sanchez, age 32 are now all facing multiple charges, including charges of aggravated child abuse, negligent child abuse and failure to report child abuse. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office states that Vazquez and Torres-Morales were the two who actively committed the abuse against the nine children, but their girlfriends, Tarvin and Sanchez, were well aware of the abuse being committed against the children, but did nothing to stop it.

Polk County sheriffs began to investigate the four in mid-July, after receiving a referal from the Flordia Department of Children and Families (DCF). The Department of Children and Families were concerned that the nine children were being abused, and that they were possibly being “disciplined” with a handheld stun gun.

The DCF had removed two children, ages 8 and 11, already. It was discovered that those two had “patterned bruises and burns,” as well as multiple “two-prong” burns all over their buttocks. A thorough medical examination on one child turned up a heartbreaking total of 15 individual two-prong burns, which are, police state, consistent with the effects of a stun gun, on his backside.

Sanchez gave the detectives investigating permission to check the other seven children for injuries. They quickly noticed the same “two-prong” burn marks consistent with stun gun usage on five of the seven other children, making a total of seven children within the house who had recently been “disciplined” through the use of a stun gun.

Fox News reports that one of the children told investigators he had lost feeling in his legs after being subjected to the stun gun, but was eventually able to run to a neighbor’s house to finally ask for help. Deputies stated the children were injured with the stun gun at least 36 separate times over the course of about a month.

Torres originally tried to tell a sheriff’s deputy that yes, he owned a stun gun, but the reason why the children had those burns — again, 15 individual burns on the buttocks of one child alone — is because they had found the stun gun and were using it on each other. However, Torres eventually admitted that he was lying.

He and Vasquez had been using the stun gun for the past two to three weeks to discipline the nine children who were supposed to be under his protection and in his care.

Vasquez told investigators that he and the other male within the house, Torres, made all of the male children perform push ups, and any child who could not perform one, was subjected to the stun gun.

“One of the children said they weren’t allowed to cry or say that it hurt, because to do that would cause more discipline,” said Sheriff Grady Judd.

The report states that the two women in the house, Veronica Sanchez and Elizabeth Tarvin, both admitted they were very aware that the men were using the stun gun on the children, and made the choice to not do anything about it. The women stated they kept quiet about the child abuse and stun gun usage out of fear of losing their relationship with the men, as well as losing their children.

Sheriff Judd called the horrific abuse case “torture” for the nine children involved.

“A real man doesn’t hurt a baby or a child. These aren’t real men. These are cowards. These are deviants. These are people that need to go to prison for a very long time for torturing children.”

Sanchez is being held on $62,000 bond. The other three are being held on bonds of $455,000 or more.

[Image credit: Polk County Sheriff’s Department]