"John" HEMINGWAY - 12 yo - Horry Cty/ Myrtle Beach SC

http://www.live5news.com/story/16218425/child-undergoes-surgery-after-reported-abuse-with-a-baseball-bat

Another Horry County father and stepmother have been jailed after a child reported alleged abuse with a baseball bat to a school official.

In a police report obtained by WMBF News, Horry County officers met with a complainant sometime after Dec. 4 in reference to a student reporting abuse by his parents.





According to the 12-year-old victim, his father, identified as Roger Hemingway, 34, of Aynor beat his legs with a baseball bat on Halloween night. He was then taken to the emergency room in Loris, where Hemingway and his wife, 26-year-old Jennifer Brown-Hemingway allegedly both told hospital personnel in the ER that the child was in a four-wheeler accident.

The victim's injuries were reportedly severe enough that he needed surgery at McLeod in Florence.

When the victim returned to school, the complainant and a school nurse spoke with both Hemingway and Brown-Hemingway about the incident and the child's injuries, and both told them the same accident scenario, the report stated.

On Dec. 4, the victim went to a school nurse for treatment for his swollen arm. Originally, the child told that nurse he had been in a fight with another child in the neighborhood and was thrown onto a porch. Further questioning of the child revealed that his stepmother, Brown-Hemingway, allegedly beat him on the arm and shoulder, and then hit in him the left eye for not doing something he was told to do and "wasn't doing it fast enough."

Officers then placed the victim and another 4-year-old child in emergency protective custody. After further investigation, Hemingway and Brown-Hemingway were arrested and charged with abuse/to inflict great bodily injury upon a child.

This is the second arrest made in about two weeks where a father and his wife have allegedly abused their preteen children.

On Nov. 29, officers in Horry County arrested Benjamin and Louise Smith of Myrtle Beach after children reported they had been beaten and forced to eat food with hot sauce, among other claims.

The Smiths were charged with two counts of unlawful neglect of a child and the children were put into the care of their grandmother.


Hemingway and Brown-Hemingway remain incarcerated at this time in the J. Reuben Long Detention Center.