Oran police chief spanked boy; MSHP filed assault report; no charges followed

Oran, Missouri, police chief Gregg Ourth spanked a child in 2015 while in his official capacity as a police officer, and was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The patrol indicated Ourth had committed a third-degree assault on the 10-year-old child, but Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Boyd declined to charge the chief.

The report, listed as a supplemental report with an incident number, stated: "The violation of law in this case is as follows: Assault 3rd Degree, RSMo 565.070."

Oran's mayor and Board of Aldermen were aware of the investigation.

The incident occurred in late March 2015, according to the patrol's investigative reports. The Southeast Missourian recently obtained the reports through a public records request.

Rick Walter, then Scott County sheriff, requested the patrol's division of drug and crime control to investigate the incident after being contacted by the boy's mother.

The patrol wrote in a case summary dated April 22, 2015, Ourth admitted spanking the child. The patrol submitted its investigative reports to Boyd.

In a one-sentence email to the Southeast Missourian, Boyd said he did not charge Ourth because "based on totality of all the facts and knowledge of the history of the individuals involved in the investigation, I determined this case was not fit for criminal prosecution."

Oran Mayor Gary Senciboy said Wednesday he would not comment on the matter.

But he subsequently said he was aware of the incident and the investigation.

Senciboy, in expletive-laced remarks, accused the Southeast Missourian of engaging in "fake news" in reporting on an incident in which no charges were filed.

Ourth also refused to discuss the matter. "I have no comment whatsoever," he said earlier this week.

'A level of assault'

Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair said police officers should never resort to spanking. "That is not a justified use of force," Blair said Wednesday.

"To me, it would almost rise to a level of assault," he said.

Blair said that in 24 years of law enforcement he had never heard of a law enforcement officer spanking someone else's child.

Walter agreed with Blair, adding he believed the spanking could be considered an assault.

Randy Rhodes, chief juvenile officer for the 32nd Judicial Circuit, said neither juvenile officers nor police officers should spank a child.

He said his office deals with juveniles in criminal cases. Rhodes said his office would not be involved in noncriminal cases.

Police, however, can direct parents to counseling centers or crisis hotlines to seek help for children with behavioral issues, he said. Children in such cases often are dealing with underlying trauma, Rhodes said. In such cases, it is important for children to undergo psychological exams to identify any mental-health issues, he said.

He praised the Cape Girardeau Police Department for its current efforts to have its officers receive crisis-intervention training.

Patrol investigation

Three years ago, the patrol interviewed four people, including Ourth, regarding the spanking incident.

The names of the mother, a friend of the mother and the mother's sister were redacted in the documents the patrol provided to the Southeast Missourian. All but one of the interviews was audio recorded, according to the patrol.

According to the investigative reports, the mother told officers April 14, 2015, at the patrol's office in Sikeston, Missouri, her son had behavioral issues.

She said she took the boy's Xbox from him, "due to him not listening and helping clean the house," Patrol Cpl. J.A. Lacey wrote.

"When she did this, her son became angry and violent towards her and her friend ... The boy began swinging a wooden coat hanger at the two of them and cornered them in a room and would not let them leave," Lacey said.

Ourth responded to the scene. The mother said she asked Ourth "to scare her son into helping her clean the house and stop misbehaving," Lacey reported.

"Ourth grabbed the boy by his shirt and began cursing him by telling him to help clean the house," Lacey said the mother told him and patrol Sgt. W.T. Cooper.

The mother said her son "mumbled something to Ourth and went into the house," according to Lacey's report.

The mother told the patrol Ourth followed the boy into the house and spanked him four or five times with an open hand.

She told the officers the Missouri Department of Family Services subsequently removed both of her sons from the home due to unsanitary living conditions. The sons were placed in the custody of the mother's sister, according to the patrol report.

In the interview, the mother "admitted she wanted Ourth to scare her son and help her make him behave, but she felt as though he took it too far. She said she did not want Ourth to spank him," Lacey wrote.

A friend of the mother was also interviewed April 14, 2015. She told the investigators Ourth "only struck the child a couple of times," Lacey said.

She said the mother frequently called Ourth about her son's behavior. She said the mother "was fine with Ourth spanking the child when it happened, but changed her mind a couple of days later," Lacey wrote.

On April 20, 2015, officer Lacey interviewed the mother's sister at the request of Boyd, the prosecutor, patrol records show. The interview was conducted by phone and was not recorded, Lacey said.

The sister said she was "not aware of the Oran police chief spanking her nephew, but felt as though it probably needed to be done," Lacey wrote.

"She indicated the 10-year-old boy has severe behavioral issues when he is around her sister, but has no issues when he is in her custody," he wrote. "She also told me her sister is very dramatic and is always trying to make a big deal out of small issues."

On April 21, 2015, officers Cooper and Lacey interviewed Ourth.

Ourth said the mother had called him "15 times a day sometimes, complaining about her son," according to Lacey's account of the interview.

Ourth said when he arrived at the residence in March 2015, the boy had a clothes hanger and "was out of control," Lacey wrote. Ourth told officers the boy attempted to strike him with the hanger before running into the house.

'Settled him down'

"Ourth said he then spanked the boy on his rear end two times with an open hand. According to Ourth, this settled him down immediately," Lacey wrote.

The Oran police chief said the mother had been asking him for two weeks to spank her son because of his "misbehavior," according to the patrol's report.

Ourth said the Department of Family Services recently had been to the residence and told her "to clean it up or they would remove her children from her custody," Lacey wrote.

Ourth told officers he asked her why she had not cleaned up the house, Lacey said.

The mother "then became angry and told him she was going to complain on him for child abuse," according to the patrol's report of the interview.

Ourth told officers the woman called him repeatedly asking him to intervene when Family Services came to remove the children. Ourth said he did not "go on the call with the Department of Family Services" because of the mother's complaint about the spanking incident, Lacey reported.

In addition to the interviews, the patrol submitted a disk of a recorded phone conversation between Ourth and Walter, the sheriff at the time. The conversation was recorded by Walter, the patrol said.

Lacey said Boyd "became aware" of the recording "pertaining to the assault."

The audio recording was copied to a disk and submitted with the investigative reports at the request of Boyd, Lacey said.

Walter said Ourth called him after the spanking incident. "I just let him talk. He admitted he spanked the kid," Walter said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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