A Linton woman is facing a felony charge for physically abusing a two-year-old child. She’s accused of slapping the sides of the child’s head resulting in the child’s ears turning red and purple with bruising.

Tiffany Lynn Grow, 21, Linton, was arrested by Deputy Michael Coy of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday night, June 8. Grow’s bond was set at $10,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. She posted $1,000 and was released the same night.

Grow was taken into custody on a warrant issued last week as a result of an investigation led by Detective Logan Hobbs of the Linton Police Department into a report of a battery to a young child that resulted in injuries.

The LPD began the investigation around 11 p.m. on Monday, April 19, when DCS (Department of Child Services) personnel reported the battery and said a man and woman (Tiffany Grow) were at Greene County General Hospital with their two-year-old child who had bruising to both of his ears.

LPD Officers Bobby Pierce and Janzen Franklin responded to the hospital that night and talked to both parents.

The man said that five days earlier, he had left the child at his residence, with Grow watching the child, and when he returned home, he noticed bruising to both of the child’s ears. He said he confronted Grow but he didn’t believe her story that the child caused the injuries to himself, and he took the child to his mother’s (the child’s grandmother’s) house. He said he didn’t report the incident because he was afraid DCS might take the child but when he later took the child to their family doctor, the doctor reported it to DCS and DCS then asked him to take the child to the emergency room.

When they talked to Grow, she said the child has tantrums and while she was watching him and the father was not home, the child had a tantrum, hit his head on the ground, on the walls and on dumbbells. The officers said they noticed inconsistencies in the story right away and Grow later admitted she slapped the child with an open hand on each side of the child’s face.

The case was forwarded to Det. Hobbs and when he conducted a second interview with Grow on a later day, she first told the same story about the tantrums and that the child had hit his head and that caused the injuries. Confronted with her changing story, Grow then alleged the child has tantrums and hits and bites her which causes her to get frustrated. She allegedly said this had happened and she slapped him on both sides of his head with an open hand and when she took him out to play, she noticed his ears were red and purple.

Grow is scheduled to appear in Greene Circuit Court next Wednesday morning, June 16, for an initial hearing.

She is facing a charge of domestic battery with bodily injury to a person under the age of 14, a Level 5 felony.