"John" LARA - 13 yo - /Accused: Rayford and Cynthia Lara Belleview FL

Parents Accused Of Beating Son With Bat Over Game

Updated: 6:47 am EDT July 14, 2011

BELLEVIEW, Fla. -- A mother and father are accused of beating their 13-year-old son with a baseball bat when the boy allegedly refused to stop playing video games.

It allegedly happened at the family's home in Belleview. The teenager told deputies his parents took turns hitting him.

The boy was playing video games when his parents wanted him to put the Play Station portable down, deputies said.

According to an arrest report, he refused, and his father Rayford Lara tackled him onto his bed.

Then the teen’s mother, Cynthia Lara, allegedly hit him with the bat. The report indicates she then handed the bat to her husband, who struck the boy again, and also punched him in the face several times.

WFTV spoke with Cynthia Lara on Wednesday after she bonded out of jail.

“It's nothing but bull, bull crap. It's not true. I don't beat on my babies. I never have. I never will!” she said.

After the fight, the boy told deputies he jumped out his bedroom window and ran away from home.

His older brother, who lives in Ocala, reported the incident to deputies.

Neighbors told WFTV that they were surprised by the allegations.

“They don't seem like people who'd hit nobody with a bat,” said a neighbor, who did not want to be identified.

Both parents were arrested on child abuse charges. Rayford Lara was still in jail as of late Wednesday night.

The couple claimed their son attacked first, because he wanted to keep playing video games when they told him to stop, according to deputies.

“We raised them, you know? We didn't raise them like that, to turn on us,” said Cynthia Lara.

Deputies said the boy had scratches on his face, and bruises on his body, but he wasn't taken to the hospital.

The boy is in foster care while the Department of Children and Families investigates the allegations.