PUTNAM COUNTY
A Putnam County father was arrested on Christmas Day on charges related to abusing his children.
Putnam County jail reports reveal Charlie Robert Rodriguez-Diaz, 49, of Walnut Way, Eatonton, was arrested shortly after 9 a.m. Dec. 25 on charges of aggravated assault, family violence, battery-family violence (second offense), and two counts of cruelty to children-first degree-family violence.
The incident began at breakfast on Christmas Eve, according to a report by officer Christopher Detweiler, of Eatonton Police Department.
Rodriguez-Diaz’s children were staying with him, and his 7-year-old son woke up and said he was hungry. His father told him they would have breakfast when the boy’s sister got up, Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said.
The boy went in the other room and checked on his older sister and went back and told their father that she was awake. But Rodriguez-Diaz accused the boy of lying and reportedly grabbed the boy by his face and shook him and then grabbed the child’s neck and began choking him, leaving visible marks on his neck and causing the boy to have difficulty breathing.
The 11-year-old daughter said that Rodriguez-Diaz also grabbed her by the face and shook her, digging his fingernails into the skin of her face, according to the report.
The children’s mother picked them up around 12:30 p.m. that day, and when they left his house and got down the road, the children told her what had happened, and she took them to Eatonton Police Department.
Warrants were issued and Rodriguez-Diaz was arrested at his house without incident. He bonded out the next day on $16,000 property bonds.