A mother who grabbed a boy by the throat on Friday for bullying her daughter may have targeted the wrong child, according to Sonoma County Sheriff officials.
Delia Garcia-Bratcher was arrested Saturday on felony child abuse charges after she physically assaulted a 12-year old boy, but he may not have been the one bullying her child.
"We are unable to determine if any bullying ever occurred," Lt. Steve Brown told the Associated Press. "We don't know if this kid bullied this girl at all. It looks like he did not. We can't find anybody to say that he did."
Meanwhile, Garcia-Bratcher's lawyer, Ben Adams, says his client never laid a hand on the boy.
"She does not deny confronting the boy and telling him to 'knock it off,' but she absolutely denies touching him," Adams said.
Authorities say that Garcia-Bratcher, 30, entered Piner-Olivet Charter Elementary School in Santa Rosa, California without signing in at the front desk, and found her 11-year old son on the playground. She allegedly asked her son to point out the boy that had been bullying her daughter, and grabbed the accused bully by the throat in the school's lunchroom.
No adults saw the attack, but police say that several students were witnesses. The witnesses also say that Garcia-Bratcher threatened the boy not to bully her daughter anymore.
Olivet teachers took photos of red marks around the 12-year old's neck, and Lt. Mark Essick said that sheriff's deputies also saw the marks.
Garcia-Bratcher was released after posting $30,000 bail.
Authorities will continue to investigate the bullying claims, but say that even if they are substantiated, that is no excuse for the mother's actions.
"To take it into her own hands was absolutely the wrong thing to do," Essick told The Press Democrat.
