Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune –
Andre Curry was in the living room playing with his 22-month-old daughter last December when he grabbed a roll of blue painters tape, bound the little girl’s hands and feet together and put two strips of tape over her mouth.
Then the South Side father snapped a photo of the little girl bound in tape and posted it to his Facebook page, according to testimony today at his trial on aggravated domestic battery charges.
Across the top of the image were the words: “This is wut happens wen my baby hits me back,” according to testimony. The message was followed by a winking emoticon. Within hours, it had gone viral on the Internet.
Curry, 22, does not deny posting the photo. At the close of the bench trial, which featured only three witnesses and lasted a little over an hour, his attorney, Sam Adam Jr. argued he was a good father who was just being playful, and that the child was never in any danger.
“Was this something stupid to do? No question about it,” Adam told Judge Lawrence Flood. “But they’re asking you to find him guilty of some very serious charges.”
Cook County prosecutors argued that by placing the tape over the girl’s mouth, Curry obstructed her breathing and committed a battery. There was no evidence presented of any injuries to the child.
Curry’s family, including the baby’s mother, Yasmin Doss, has stood by him since the incident.
His sister, Annastasia Curry, testified today that she was cooking dinner that night at the family’s home in the 6100 block of South Racine Avenue and could hear Curry and her niece laughing in the living room. She testified she went out to check on them at one point and saw the little girl with the tape on her.
“She was laughing, he was laughing,” the sister said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I saw him take the tape off, and I went back in the kitchen.”
Chicago police Detective Charles Hollendoner testified he interviewed Curry twice in the days after the incident and the father insisted the whole thing was meant to be a joke.
“He said he was just playing with the child and didn’t mean any harm,” Hollendoner said. “He said the child was only taped up for a maximum of 30 seconds.”
Curry told police he was soon flooded with “hate mail” and removed the photo from his page the next day, Hollendoner testified. As the image was circulated it also prompted numerous calls to police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Curry, who is free on bond and has since taken a job in Minnesota, sat at the defense table today dressed in a cream-colored sweater and black jeans. His attorneys presented no witnesses, and he told the judge he did not wish to testify in his own defense.
After prosecutors concluded their case, Flood acquitted Curry of unlawful restraint, but he said he wanted more time to look over domestic battery laws before issuing a ruling on Nov. 8.
If convicted, Curry could face up to 7 years in prison. He has been ordered to have no contact with his daughter except through DCFS until the case is resolved.
