RACINE (WITI) -- 26-year-old William Pearson of Racine faces a child abuse charge in connection with the alleged abuse of two of his children.
The official charge Pearson faces is: physical abuse of a child, intentionally causing bodily harm (repeater), for an incident that occurred on May 15th.
A criminal complaint in the case says officers responded to the hospital for a one-year-old with scalding injuries.
The criminal complaint says the child's mother had taken pain medication and fallen asleep, believing that Pearson would be able to take care of the six children in the home. However, Pearson was called to work, and left the children home with Tanisha Ivey, who is the mother of the one-year-old.
The criminal complaint says the oldest child in the home gave the youngest child (the one-year-old) a bath in scalding water, causing substantial burns to the baby.
The complaint says Pearson eventually came home, noticed the injuries and took the one-year-old to the hospital.
The complaint says Pearson was upset with the oldest child and her brother (the second oldest) after this incident, and allegedly beat them with a belt as punishment.
The complaint says a neighbor told officials the children run around unsupervised and seemingly uncared for.
When interviewed by police, Pearson admitted to yelling at the older children, but denied any physical discipline. The criminal complaint says Pearson indicated he planned on disciplining the children at a later time (with an open hand).
Pearson told officials he had a child taken away from him in 2009 when one of the children suffered an injury and he had to attend parenting classes.
If convicted, Pearson faces a maximum fine of $10,000 and/or imprisonment for a maximum of six years.