SPPD: Bail increased, protective
order granted in child abuse case
January 28, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The Santa Paula man accused of physically abusing his two small children pleaded not guilty in a Ventura County Superior Court to a felony abuse charge.
During the January 20 court appearance prosecutors asked - and the judge granted - an increase in the bail first set for 33-year-old Richard McElroy. Bail was raised from $100,000 to $250,000.
The judge also issued protective a.k.a. restraining orders that bans McElroy, should he be released from Ventura County Jail, from contacting his wife and two daughters, ages 3 years old and 8-months.
If released McElroy was also ordered not to possess a firearm.
On January 15, Santa Paula police were called to the family’s home on the 200 block of North 12th Street by the girls’ mother - who is expecting another child - who told officers her husband had been drinking heavily that day and had become in turn, impatient with, irritated by and then physically abusive to the children.
According to SPPD, McElroy allegedly bit his 3-year-old daughter on the arm, poured hot sauce in her month, hit her several times on the back with a hairbrush and threw her against a closet door.
During the incident McElroy is accused of picking up the 8-month-old and dropping the child in a crib from a distance of approximately 2-3 feet.
When he picked up the younger child again the mother, who was sitting on the bed, asked for the baby and police said McElroy threw the child approximately 5-feet onto the bed.
During the January 20 court date McElroy also denied a special allegation that he abused the girls while out of jail on his own recognizance pending his sentencing on a 2013 domestic abuse case in which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge earlier this month. The sentencing on the earlier charge had been scheduled later this month.
McElroy is expected to have another court hearing this week.
