According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Department, Brian K. Dubay Jr. is facing domestic violence and child abuse charges for slapping his girlfriend’s daughter. The complaint was called in by the girl’s father, who had picked up his daughters from his ex-wife’s home that evening.

He noticed that his younger daughter had swelling and bruising on the right side of her face. But because the mother had texted him earlier, explaining that the bruising was the result of a park swing hitting the girl in the face, he didn’t think too much of it. But after picking up his daughters, he learned that this wasn’t the case.

 
The deputy who responded to the call says that the father claimed his daughter told him the bruising was the result of being slapped by Dubay. When the deputy talked to the girl, she explained that she had been yelling at her brother to leave her alone. Her mother’s boyfriend had come out into the hallway where she was, and slapped her twice in the face.

 
According to her story, she had started to cry and then her mother arrived and spanked her several times. The deputy then asked the girl if she was afraid of her mother, or reluctant to return to her home. The girl apparently began crying hysterically and claimed that she was very frightened of both her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, and didn’t want to go back.

 
The story that the younger girl told was confirmed by her older sister, who had also been present. The deputy then paid a visit to the mother’s house, taking a lieutenant with him, where they confronted the mother. At first the mother claimed that she had been the one to slap her daughter and Dubay had only spanked her because she was yelling loudly.

 
The deputy also spoke to the brother, who claimed that he never saw any of the incident and had thought that his sister hurt herself on monkey bars at the park. When officers later confronted Dubay, he at first denied hitting the girl, and then later in the interview admitted slapping her. But said that he hadn’t hit her that hard.

 
Deputies arrested Dubay. He was arraigned before Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on single counts of third-degree child abuse, and domestic violence. Under Michigan law, third-degree child abuse is a high court misdemeanor, punishable by 2 years imprisonment. Domestic violence is a misdemeanor punishable by 93 days in jail.

 
Dubay’s bond was set at $25,000 cash-surety and his preliminary examination was scheduled for 2 pm on Wednesday, September 16th.