TAZEWELL, Va. (WJHL) — Authorities say charges have been filed against a Tazewell County couple after an infant was taken to a hospital with rodent bites.
Selina Coleman, 20, and Michael Wayne Stevenson, 38, were charged with multiple counts of child endangerment and child abuse and neglect with serious injury, according to the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said it responded to Clinch Valley Medical Center on Thursday after Child Protective Services alerted the agency to a potential case of child abuse.
Deputies arrived and discovered that a 5-month-old child with severe rodent bites was brought to the hospital by his mother, according to the sheriff’s office.
The 5-month-old and a 15-month-old were placed in the care of relatives with no contact with the parents permitted, the sheriff’s office said.
The commonwealth’s attorney, Child Protective Services, and the sheriff’s office are investigating.
Both parents are being held at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail at Tazewell without bond, according to the sheriff’s office.