John Jefferson
Background: The Suburban Extended Stay Hotel in Charlotte, N.C. (Google Maps). Inset: Tiffany Rivera (Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office).
A North Carolina mom allegedly defended her decision to tie up her 4-year-old son and put him in the closet as “punishment.”
Tiffany Rivera, 30, is accused of harming her young son while they were living at the Suburban Extended Stay hotel in Charlotte. According to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, the alleged abuse was first brought to the attention of Charlotte police on Aug. 7 after her son was treated at the Onslow Memorial Hospital, where hospital staff noticed injuries to the boy’s neck, wrists and ankles.
Social workers told detectives that Rivera had told them that “she would tie the victim’s wrists and ankles together then put him inside a closet for punishment.”
“Tiffany advised the social workers that she would do this because the victim would eat all of her food, drink whatever he wanted, and poop/pee on himself,” the affidavit continued.
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Investigators noticed both new and old injuries on the child, the affidavit said. The boy required several days of care in the hospital.
Law enforcement says that a witness relayed that he had asked Rivera about the boy’s injuries after noticing them on July 30.
“[S]he responded with ‘I do whatever I want to my child,’” the affidavit said. That witness also told investigators that the boy appeared scared to talk around Rivera, and despite being fully potty-trained, “the victim recently started urinating on himself.”
Rivera lives in Jacksonville, in Onslow County, some 250 miles east of Charlotte. Court records show that Rivera posted $5,000 bond and was released from custody on Sept. 10. She has a court date in Charlotte on Oct. 1.
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