Oklahoma City Mother Arrested For Alleged Child Abuse

An Oklahoma City mother is accused of abusing her child over household chores and a bad attitude.

Oklahoma City Police said the case involves Francis Michelle Burke, her 12-year-old son and a disagreement over some dirty dishes at their house in the 1300 block of Windsurf Way on Wednesday night.

"12-year-old boy was supposed to clean his spoon. Apparently this family member didn't think that he had done it well enough and at that point, told him to bend over and started hitting him with a belt," said OCPD Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow.

The boy said when Burke told him to clean the spoon again, he told her sarcastically 'alright' and then she hit him on his lower back and buttocks at least 30 times with a black leather webbed belt.

"The victim actually said that he counted 30 times that he was hit with the belt because he was actually counting at the time that this was going on," said Wardlow.

The boy said Burke then told him to put his hands down on the table with his palms facing up and she hit him several times. Then, he shielded his face with the left arm and Burke hit him one time on the left side of his face.

The 12-year-old said his mom did this because he had hurt himself on purpose earlier that week by rubbing an eraser on a surface until it got hot and burning himself with it.

"Apparently this family member, for whatever reason, was very upset that this had happened, confronted him about it and this was the second time that he was beaten with a belt," Wardlow explained.

Police said the boy was crying and called his adoptive dad, who is divorced from Burke, and the dad called the police. Officers confirmed they saw visible injuries on the child.

Police arrested Burke on complaints of child abuse and assault and battery. Police said they notified DHS and the agency determined the boy and his sibling would stay with the father.