Mom, boyfriend handcuffed 6-year-old boy as ‘corporal punishment’ before he was attacked by pit bull, cops say

Investigators allege the boy was restrained with handcuffs and being tied to a chair with rope at the time of the attack

Angelina Williams (left), Robert Michalski (center) and Taylor Marvin-Brown (right) are in police custody after Williams’ six-year-old son was attacked by a pit bull (Ashland County Jail)

An Ohio mom and her boyfriend have been arrested after her 6-year-old son was attacked by a pit bull while being restrained with handcuffs as a form of “corporal punishment,” police said.

Angelina Williams, 27, of Cleveland and her boyfriend, Taylor Marvin-Brown, have been arrested on separate charges of endangering children and obstructing justice, after police responded to a 911 call in the early evening of August 17 that a pit bull had “bitten a 6-year-old child on the neck and ear.” Upon arrival, officials found the child in “serious condition,” and he was quickly flown to the hospital.

Robert Michalski, 47, who the sheriff’s office claim owns the dog that attacked the child, is also being held at Ashland County Jail on charges of endangering children and tampering with evidence.

Williams had recently moved in with Michalski to his Savannah residence from Cleveland with her two children — the boy and his sister, who is “roughly similar in age,” as revealed in her bond hearing.

She later explained that Michalski, who also owns the Chapel Street residence that police were called to, is her uncle.

Police say that during their investigation they discovered evidence that the 6-year-old had been restrained with handcuffs on his hand and feet when the pit bull attacked him. A press release says Marvin-Brown was “at the house and assisted with the restraining” of the 6-year-old.

Angelina Williams (left), Robert Michalski (center) and Taylor Marvin-Brown (right) are in police custody after Williams’ six-year-old son was attacked by a pit bull (Ashland County Jail)

During a search of the house on August 18, investigators found Michalski hiding with his dog in a “cubbyhole upstairs,” at which point deputies took all three adults into custody. Officials also took the pit bull into custody “to be housed as a vicious dog.”

Williams wept during her bond hearing, which revealed she does not have custody of her children, who were with her on visitation per a court order at the time of the attack.

Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Tunnell claimed Williams had been using handcuffs and rope on her children as a disciplining method, with pictures of them “bound in that manner” found on her phone.

The incident on Saturday allegedly came about when the little boy in some way objected to picking up dog excrement by the side of the house, prompting the three adults involved to put him in handcuffs and try to tie him to a chair with rope, according to the prosecutor.

Tunnell said it was at this point that the boy fell to the ground and was attacked by the pit bull, which caused “severe and serious lacerations to the child’s neck” and a “significant amount of bleeding.”

Williams held her head in her hands while listening to the account of what happened to her son.

Some of the co-defendants applied pressure to the boy’s wounds, and left the house with him to meet first responders in an effort to get him help, with Tunnell going on to claim Williams had lied to investigators about what happened to her son.

He revealed she has a prior record, having been charged as a juvenile in 2012 for assault, and in 2016 for domestic violence that was later revised to disorderly conduct. Her bond was set to $300,000.

“The dog’s not even my dog, the cuffs aren’t even my cuffs,” Williams insisted during the hearing. “I didn’t even know that the cuffs were illegal or anything was wrong with it.”

“My uncle told me that it was okay,” the mother-of-two claimed, hanging her head. “I never meant any harm, I really didn’t.”

Michalski’s bond was set to $150,000, while Marvin-Brown’s was set to $250,000, with further hearings set for Friday.