Santa Rosa police arrested the father of a 4-year-old boy Monday afternoon on suspicion of felony child abuse after witnesses reported the man yelling obscenities at him and putting his hands around the child’s neck.
Robert Flett, 31, was arrested at a Barham Avenue convenience store about 1:20 p.m. after a caller reported the suspected abuse of a child, said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Jeneane Kucker.
The caller and other witnesses said the man was yelling and screaming and had put the boy roughly into the driver’s seat, causing him to hit his head on the center console, she said.
Officers detained Flett while paramedics examined the boy, who had two minor head injuries. The boy was taken to a hospital for an evaluation and placed in protective custody, Kucker said.
Flett was booked into the Sonoma County Jail.
In 2013, Flett pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor battery for his role in a June 2012 attack of a family at Youth Community Park in west Santa Rosa, according to a Press Democrat news story. He was sentenced to six months in Sonoma County Jail and then two years’ probation.
You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707‑521-5412 or [email protected]. On Twitter@rossmannreport.
