A 35-year-old Hialeah mother is facing a first-degree felony charge after police say she burned her 10-year-old daughter's arm, thigh and shin and restrained the girl's hands with rope or handcuffs as a form of punishment. Gineth Ramirez was arrested at her home shortly before 3 p.m. on Thursday and booked into jail hours later, accused of one count of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm.
According to the girl, Ramirez burned her arms and legs because she misbehaved and made her sit on a brown chair with her hands tied behind her back using rope or handcuffs, as reported by WPLG Local 10. A detective photographed a burn mark on the girl's right forearm, another on the inside of her upper right thigh, and a third on her right shin, the outlet reports. A Florida Department of Children and Families investigator who examined the girl described the injuries, per police records, as appearing to be first-degree burn marks.
Ramirez gave police conflicting explanations for the injuries. According to the arrest report, she said she does not use corporal punishment and disciplines her daughter by making her sit in a chair facing the wall when she misbehaves, and she denied ever tying her daughter's hands with rope or handcuffs. She told investigators one burn happened 15 days earlier when flan fell on her daughter's leg while the two were cooking together, but the report states she could not explain the other two burns.
How the Case Reached Investigators
The investigation began Thursday when a Florida Department of Children and Families child protective investigator met with the girl at Thumbelina Learning Center in Hialeah after receiving a report of alleged abuse. The center operates licensed early learning and after-school programs in the city. Florida law requires anyone who suspects a child is being abused or neglected to immediately notify the state's 24-hour Abuse Hotline, a universal mandatory-reporting duty that appears to have set the case in motion.
The girl was scheduled to undergo a forensic interview Friday afternoon, a process coordinated in Miami-Dade County through the Kristi House Children's Advocacy Center that allows a single trained professional to record a child's disclosures without forcing them to repeat their account to multiple adults. Severe physical child abuse cases in the county are handled by the State Attorney's Office's specialized Sexual Crimes and Child Abuse Unit, which operates directly out of Kristi House alongside DCF and police investigators, according to the Office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
What Ramirez Faces in Court
Ramirez was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral shortly after 6:10 p.m. Thursday and was set to appear in bond court Friday morning before Judge Carmen Cabarga. Aggravated child abuse involving torture or malicious punishment is a first-degree felony under Florida Statute Section 827.03, carrying a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison, up to 30 years of probation and a $10,000 fine, per The Florida Senate.
Under Florida's Criminal Punishment Code, the charge is also designated a Level 9 offense, which mandates a minimum sentence of 48 months in state prison upon conviction unless a judge grants a legal departure, according to Hanlon Law. Ramirez also has a 2-year-old son; the arrest report does not detail his condition or whereabouts.
A Pattern of Recent Cases in Hialeah
The arrest adds to a string of severe child abuse cases Hialeah police have pursued in recent months. Just days earlier, officers arrested a 31-year-old father on aggravated child abuse charges after he allegedly choked his 14-year-old son and beat him with an extension cord during a discipline dispute, as Hoodline previously reported. In July, a Hialeah mother was arrested after allegedly chaining a teenager to a fence.
Statewide, Florida's child-welfare system includes investigations of alleged abuse and reports of confirmed child-maltreatment victims. The outcome of Ramirez's bond hearing and the findings of her daughter's forensic interview had not been reported as of Friday morning.
