Monroe man sentenced in child abuse case involving wooden paddle

A Monroe man who was arrested on suspicion of beating children with a wooden paddle in April admitted to spanking two victims Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court, according to the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

Braxton Brand, 45, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault against 13-year-old twin sisters who are developmentally delayed. The crime is considered a gross misdemeanor in Washington.

The Monroe School District and Child Protective Services contacted Monroe Police about a potential case of child abuse on April 6 that may have occurred in an apartment on Killarney Circle in Monroe. Four adults, including Brand, were arrested on three counts of third-degree assault of a child, each within a few days of one another.

All of the suspects lived in one apartment. The sisters lived in a neighboring unit, and there were 13 children who resided between the two. At the time, Brand lived with his girlfriend, a 48-year-old woman who was also arrested, and her two children, who are 16 and 13 years old.

The husband of a woman living in the upstairs apartment had found bruises on their 13-year-old daughter’s bottom while giving her a bath two days before Brand's arrest. The woman also said her brother had told her he had seen Brand hit the daughter with the wooden paddle the night before.

At the time he was taken into custody, Brand admitted to using the paddle on the girl, according to court records. He said the bruises were already on her bottom. He also admitted to hitting the daughter’s twin sister.

Brand said he had been asked to discipline the children, according to the prosecutor’s office. He is the only person likely to still face charges for the incident as he is the only one to have admitted to the spankings.

MPD administrative director Debbie Willis has called it “a bit of a complicated case,” because of the different relationships between the 21, or potentially 22 children and adults who lived in the two apartments. She told the Monitor all of the people know each other, and the children were sent to one or the other apartment together occasionally.

The wooden paddle allegedly used to hit the victims is 21 inches long and 5 inches wide. The names of the reportedly abused children were etched into the plywood's surface, according to court documents.

When Monroe Police officer Paul Henderson first arrived at the apartments in April a 22-year-old woman was reportedly seen carrying the paddle toward a dumpster. Law enforcement stopped her.

She said she had been bringing it out to them.

Seven children were taken into protective custody at the time, not including the twin sisters. They were interviewed at Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center in Everett. The alleged victims’ ages ranged between 10 months and 17 years old.

One child said when she was “spanked with the paddle it would hurt so bad that she screamed and couldn’t sit down for a long time or it would make it very painful to sit down,” according to court documents. One child said they had seen the paddle break while it was being used to hit a 2-year-old child. One girl said she was hit so hard that sometimes she couldn’t breathe. Each child said the pain could last into the following day.

Brand was sentenced to 126 days in jail, with credit for time served, according to the prosecutor’s office. He is also to complete two years of probation, and is ordered to have no contact with the victims, as well as no new criminal violations.

Brand plans to go live with his wife in Tennessee.