Apex Father Accused of Belt-Whipping 12-Year-Old, Mother Charged Too

A 48-year-old Apex father is accused of hitting his 12-year-old child with a belt, leaving serious injuries to the child's thigh and shin, according to arrest warrants. Wake County deputies arrested Cleavon Bridges on Wednesday, and his wife, 45-year-old Amanda Bridges, was arrested the following day on a neglect charge tied to the same incident.

Court records show Cleavon Bridges caused the injuries with the belt, and Amanda Bridges neglected the child in a way that resulted in those injuries, according to arrest warrants cited by WRAL. Both parents were booked following their arrests, with a magistrate setting bond and imposing no-contact conditions as part of the pretrial process — standard procedure for arrests processed through the Wake County Detention Center in Raleigh.

Bond and No-Contact Orders

Cleavon Bridges was released from custody after posting a $75,000 bond, per court records. As part of his release conditions, he was ordered to stay away from the family's home and to have no contact with his wife and children while the case moves through the courts.

Amanda Bridges remains held on a $20,000 bond, and she was ordered to have no contact with the child she is accused of neglecting, court records show. Both parents are scheduled to appear together at the Wake County Courthouse on September 16.

How North Carolina Defines the Charges

North Carolina law draws a sharp line between physical discipline and criminal child abuse. Under state statute, misdemeanor child abuse is a Class A1 misdemeanor — the highest misdemeanor classification in North Carolina — carrying up to 150 days in jail for a parent or caretaker who inflicts physical injury or creates a substantial risk of injury to a child under 16, according to the Powers Law Firm. If an injury is severe enough to qualify as serious physical injury, the charge can escalate to a Class D felony under a separate statute, which carries potential prison sentences ranging from 38 to 160 months depending on the defendant's prior record, according to Kurtz & Blum Attorneys At Law. It is not yet known which specific statutory charges appear on the Wake County arrest warrants for Cleavon or Amanda Bridges.

Mandatory Reporting Requirements in North Carolina

North Carolina is one of 18 states with a universal mandatory reporting law, meaning any person who suspects a child is being abused, neglected, or is dependent must report it to county social services, per FindLaw. A separate law enacted in 2019 makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for an adult who knows or should reasonably know a child is a victim of misdemeanor abuse or a violent offense to willfully fail to report it to law enforcement, according to the UNC School of Government. Whether Wake County Child Protective Services has opened a separate civil juvenile court proceeding involving the family remains unclear.

The volume of child welfare cases moving through North Carolina's system is substantial. State agencies investigated reports involving 116,566 children for alleged abuse or neglect during the 2022–2023 fiscal year, according to the Positive Childhood Alliance NC. Locally, Wake County Child Protective Services fields more than 13,000 intake calls and conducts full assessments for over 4,000 families every year, per SAFEchild Raleigh — a caseload reflecting the county's status as North Carolina's most populous, with roughly 1.26 million residents as of 2025, according to USAFacts.

A Pattern of Child Safety Cases in Apex

The arrests add to a string of child protection cases that have surfaced in the Apex area in recent months. Hoodline previously reported on an Apex ex-EMS worker's 18-year sentence in a Durham child exploitation and animal abuse case, as well as an FBI investigation that led to an infant's rescue in a multi-state child exploitation probe tied to Wake County. Apex, a town of more than 83,000 residents that has grown more than 27 percent since the 2020 Census, is the 17th most populous municipality in North Carolina, according to World Population Review.

For now, the Bridges case remains in its early stages, with both parents barred from contact with their children ahead of their September court date. No additional details about the child's current condition or custody status have been made public.