The daughter of a South Daytona police lieutenant has been arrested and charged with burning a 4-year-old boy with cigarettes and a lighter, a Volusia County Sheriff's arrest report shows.
Brandy Nichole Quartier, 23, of South Daytona was arrested by the Sheriff's Office on Wednesday and charged with aggravated child abuse, the report states.
Quartier, the daughter of South Daytona Lt. Doug Quartier, is accused of burning her boyfriend's 4-year-old son over several sections of his body. The abuse is supposed to have occurred the weekend of Feb. 24, the report states.
The youngster's mother called police on Feb. 26 after she picked up the child and his twin brother at their father's South Daytona residence. After she put both boys in her car, the mother noticed that the youngster had a blister under his lip, the report shows. She then saw another blister on the child's left hand.
At that point, the mother told police that she stopped her car and inspected her son's body, the report says. She found two more blisters on the bottom right side of the boy's back, another blister on the left side of his chest and a U-shaped burn on his left buttock.
When the 25-year-old mother asked the boy how he had obtained the injuries, she said he became "very terrified," the report says. She then took the child to Halifax Health Medical Center.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal is not identifying the boy and his parents because the child is a victim of child abuse.
Neither Quartier nor her boyfriend -- the father of the boy -- could be reached for comment Thursday. The child's mother did not return a telephone call Thursday.
South Daytona policeman Samuel Woodson went to the hospital to speak with the boy and his mother. In his incident report, Woodson wrote that the child was "extremely terrified" and "afraid to speak to me."
When the boy finally spoke, he told Woodson that he was asleep in a bedroom at his father's house that weekend with Quartier. He said while he slept, "it felt like someone was sawing at my body." He told Woodson that "it hurt really bad," the report says.
However, when Woodson asked the child who burned him, he said the boy looked at him with a "terrified face and became frozen."
Woodson asked if the boy's dad had hurt him, and the child said no. When asked if Quartier had done it, the youngster remained silent, but nodded his head up and down, the report states. The boy also said he did not want to get anyone in trouble.
South Daytona officials asked that the Sheriff's Office take over the investigation to avoid an apparent conflict of interest.
Sheriff's Investigator Justin Sawicki interviewed the youngster's mother and father separately. The boy's father said at first he thought the injuries were mosquito bites, the report shows.
Informed that a doctor who examined the boy said the burns occurred during the time the boy was with his father and Quartier, the father said, "I don't know, I don't understand this whole thing," the report states.
Sawiki attempted to interview Quartier on March 14, but she refused to speak with him, saying: "My dad told me not to talk to you guys," the report shows.
Quartier was arrested Wednesday and taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail. She was released on $5,000 bail.