Inset left: Joshua Cajigas (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department). Inset right: Mellie Jackson (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department). Background: The area of the 7400 block of Waterfront Drive in Indianapolis, Indiana (Google Maps).
Two people have been arrested in Indiana for allegedly neglecting a 3-year-old child and beating her because she was “disrespectful” and would wet the bed.
Joshua Cajigas, 24, and Mellie Jackson, 22, have both been charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury. Cajigas also faces charges of domestic battery causing serious bodily injury and battery causing serious bodily injury, police said.
Cajigas is the child”s father, and Jackson is his girlfriend, according to Fox affiliate WXIN. The Indiana man allegedly confessed that he would beat his child as punishment – but that on the day in question, Aug. 7, he didn’t know how she had hurt her head.
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The toddler was “stiff, unresponsive, and emaciated” when Indianapolis Metropolitan police officers arrived at a home on the 7400 block of Waterfront Drive around 6 p.m. that evening. They had been given a report that “a child had fallen and was unresponsive,” the police department said.
Furthermore, the victim was “covered in bruises” and was soaking wet, with Cajigas allegedly describing her as “limp, like a rag doll,” according to NBC affiliate WTHR. Emergency responders brought the child to a nearby hospital in critical condition. She was reportedly suffering from a brain bleed and had a high probability of death.
Indiana Department of Child Services workers arrived at the scene and, along with other departments, investigated how the child was hurt. The arrests of the two adults followed.
According to the girl’s biological mother, authorities were made aware of Cajigas’ alleged abusive behavior well before this recent arrest. She reportedly claimed she warned the court system that the child was being abused under his care before she lost custody of the child in May.
“I tried to tell them this is what I saw and what I’m noticing and they kept ignoring me,” Lexus Burnette told WXIN. “They could have protected her, and they didn’t. … Instead, they tormented her.”
Both Cajigas and Jackson allegedly told officers a dresser had fallen on top of the child – but he later admitted to forcing the girl to do “discipline drills” because she “tends to be disrespectful” and “also pees the bed multiple times a night, and that’s also why she is disciplined,” according to court records.
The suspects have a jury trial scheduled for Oct. 14.
