He said the wooden board snapped across his body after she dragged him back inside from the freezing night. Before that, according to a taped interview, he had been pushed out of the house without a coat because he had not put his clothes away the right way.
Those allegations sit at the center of a criminal complaint against 32-year-old Courtney Crites of Belington, West Virginia. Prosecutors say Crites used a homemade paddle she nicknamed the “attitude adjuster” to beat a boy in her care, and that she routinely kicked him and screamed at him inside a Barbour County home she shared with her boyfriend and several children.
The Allegations Inside the Complaint
The criminal case against Crites began after a local child advocacy center in Barbour County received a report about possible abuse. According to a complaint obtained by Law&Crime, advocates interviewed five children who were said to be living with Crites at the home.
The interviews were recorded, then turned over to law enforcement. Investigators reviewed the videos and, based on what they saw and heard, charged Crites with three counts of felony child abuse.
One boy, described in the complaint as a male juvenile, told interviewers that Crites kicked him, hit him, and screamed at him. Law&Crime reports that the complaint states the boy recounted being kicked in the groin and repeatedly struck with a wooden paddle when he did not put his clothes away correctly.
In the words of Law&Crime, the complaint accuses Crites of more than a single outburst. The outlet summarized the allegations this way: “A West Virginia woman is facing child abuse charges for beating a boy with a wooden paddle that she called the attitude adjuster and doing other heinous things to him, like kicking the youth in the privates and leaving him outside in the freezing cold, according to police and other children in the home.”
On one occasion, according to the complaint, Crites allegedly pushed the boy outside into freezing temperatures. Only after some time did she let him back in. Once he was inside, she struck him with the paddle until it broke.
The Paddle and the Injuries
The boy described the “attitude adjuster” as a piece of wood roughly two inches by four inches and about two feet long. He told investigators that he sustained bruises to his shoulder, chest, and back from the blows and that those marks did not fade quickly. According to the complaint, he said the bruises lasted for a couple of months.
He also described a pattern rather than a single episode. When Crites became angry, the complaint states, she would walk past him and kick him. The child allegedly told investigators that he was afraid of what would happen if she became upset again.
Law&Crime reports that the complaint recounts the boy telling investigators “that he was scared to death of Crites after she broke the paddle by hitting him with it.” That phrase, as recorded in the charging document and relayed by the outlet, reflects the level of fear investigators say they encountered during the interview.
Five Children, Three Felony Counts
The child advocacy center did not speak with only one child. Advocates interviewed five minors who were reportedly living in the same home as Crites and her boyfriend, according to the complaint. Those conversations were recorded and provided to police.
Despite that number of children, prosecutors have brought three felony child abuse counts against Crites, not five. The complaint, as described by Law&Crime, focuses heavily on one boy, his injuries, and his detailed account of the paddle. It is not clear from the public reporting how many of the charges relate to that child versus potential conduct involving others in the home.
The complaint does not clearly spell out the boy’s relationship to Crites. Police have said only that she was living with him and other minors at the Barbour County residence. Whether she is a parent, a relative, or an unrelated caregiver has not been clarified in public documents.
That missing detail leaves a gap in understanding the dynamics inside the household and how much authority Crites held over the children day to day. It also leaves open questions about who else inside the home may have witnessed or tried to stop the alleged abuse and whether any other adults are under investigation.
How the Case Reached Investigators
The complaint makes clear that a child advocacy center, not a traditional police interview room, was the starting point for the case. West Virginia uses a network of accredited child advocacy centers where trained forensic interviewers speak with children in a controlled setting, often on video, so that they do not have to repeat their stories many times to different adults.
The West Virginia Child Advocacy Network describes these centers as a way to coordinate law enforcement, child protective services, prosecutors, and medical professionals in one place so that child victims can “tell their story one time” while agencies work together on the response, according to information on its website at wvcan.org. Although the Barbour County center involved in this case has not released a statement, its role in interviewing the five children aligns with that statewide model.
After receiving the videos, police watched the recordings and then moved to file the three felony counts. Those charges indicate that investigators believed the boy’s description of repeated assaults and the use of the paddle created a substantial risk of serious injury.
What West Virginia Law Allows
Crites is charged with felony child abuse under West Virginia law. The state criminal code treats abuse that creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death as a felony offense that can result in years of imprisonment if a person is convicted. The statute governing child abuse and neglect creating risk of injury is codified at West Virginia Code 61-8D-3.
According to Law&Crime, Crites is being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail with bond set at $100,000. She was scheduled for an early court appearance known as a disposition hearing. Such hearings often address bond, preliminary scheduling, and whether the case will proceed by way of a plea negotiation or a future trial date.
At this stage, the allegations remain unproven. The complaint reflects what investigators say they heard in interviews with the children. Crites, like any person charged with a crime, is presumed innocent unless and until prosecutors convince a judge or jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the abuse occurred as described.
Unanswered Questions Around the Home
Public records on the case are thin. The complaint summarized by Law&Crime does not indicate who first contacted authorities or how long the alleged abuse may have been occurring before the child advocacy center became involved.
It is also not clear where the boy and the other children are living now, or whether child protective services removed them from the home immediately after the interviews. There is no public information yet about whether the boyfriend who shared the residence with Crites faces any scrutiny from investigators, either as a possible witness or as a potential defendant.
If the case moves forward, more specific evidence may emerge. Prosecutors could introduce the interview videos, photographs of any bruising, medical records, and testimony from child advocates and investigators. Defense attorneys, in turn, could question the reliability of the interviews, the accuracy of the boy’s timeline, and the interpretation of his injuries.
For now, what is public are the boy’s detailed descriptions of a two-foot board, a freezing night outside a house in Barbour County, and a nickname carved into a piece of lumber that turned into a criminal charge. Whether a jury will one day see that broken paddle or only hear about it from the stand remains an open question.
