39-year-old Sarah Hart, one of the women killed in a California crash along with her family members, was once accused of spanking her daughter so hard, the child had bruising on her torso and back. The incident took place 8 years ago, per reports.
At the time, one of the couple’s children told her teacher she had “owies on her tummy.” When the teacher lifted her shirt, she saw the 6-year-old had extensive bruising on her front side, from her sternum to her belly button, and on her back from midway down her back to the waistband of her pants. Sarah later confessed to police that she had “let her anger get out of control.”
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When she was interviewed by police, Sarah said she and her partner do not usually use spanking as punishment, but they recently “resorted to spanking” to deal with the little girl’s behavior. Sarah then told police she “let her anger get out of control the previous day. She took [the girl] into the bathroom and bent her over the edge of the bathtub,” hitting her over the backside and admitting the bruising likely came from that incident. Sarah was eventually charged with malicious punishment of child and domestic assault. She eventually pleaded guilty to domestic assault, and the malicious punishment of child charge was dropped.
More recently, the family was visited by Child Protective Services just outside Woodland, Wash last Friday, March 23.
CPS say they were prompted to the home after a neighbor reported one of the Hart kids repeatedly came to her home, “asking for food” and saying his parents were withholding it as punishment.
No one answered the door that time, but neighbors say they saw the Hart family quickly pile into an SUV and drive off shortly after. source
CPS returned to the home on March 26 and March 27 but no one answered.
Around the same time, authorities say the Hart family was involved in a deadly crash in Mendocino County, Calif. The SUV they were driving plunged off a cliff, killing the entire family.
One of the family members, Devonte Hart gained fame after he was photographed during a 2014 protest in Portland, Oregon hugging a white cop.