By Joe Johnson
An Athens child suffered multiple fractures when allegedly abused by her mother last year.
The child suffered fractures to her upper arm, wrists, ankles and a rib when physically abused by Shatanna Taray Asberry during the summer and fall of 2019, according to a grand jury indictment filed Tuesday in Clarke County Superior Court.
Asberry was charged under the state Family Violence Act with three counts each of first-degree cruelty to children and aggravated battery.
According to the indictment, the acts of alleged abuse occurred on different occasions between Aug. 8 and Nov. 1.
The 33-year-old Coleridge Court resident allegedly fractured the child’s rib by striking and applying “forceful compression to her rib cage,“ and fractured the girl’s wrists and ankles by violently shaking and pulling on the victim’s arms and legs, according to the indictment.
One of the child-cruelty charges stemmed from Asberry allegedly willfully depriving her child with “necessary sustenance to the extent that said child’s health and wellbeing were jeopardized,“ the indictment states.
Asberry was arrested on Nov. 6 and on Nov. 22 was granted a $35,000 good security bond.
The bond order, issued by Western Judicial Circuit Judge Lisa Lott noted that the victim and Asberry’s two other children had been removed from Asberry’s custody, and Juvenile Court had prohibited the woman from having any contact with her children.
Asberry is scheduled to be arraigned on April 7.