By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — The 2-year-old boy brought recently to the Sunshine Clinic in Miami bore what initially were believed to be second-degree burns over half his body, “from neck to knees, front and back,” as the Ottawa County undersheriff put it Thursday.
The burn unit of the hospital in Tulsa, where the toddler was transferred, later determined that some of the burns were third-degree and would require skin grafts.
Informed of the suspected case of child abuse by the clinic, Det. Dan Christophel, of the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department, began looking into what had happened at the boy’s home at 65500 East 155 Road near Wyandotte.
John D. Cellner, 23, boyfriend of the child’s mother, told investigators that he’d been working on a vehicle in their yard and removed the radiator cap, accidentally causing hot water to spew from the radiator onto the child.
Cellner’s explanation did not sit well with investigators from the start and subsequent changes in his story finally culminated in Cellner’s arrest Thursday at his home on a charge of felony child abuse, Undersheriff Bob Ernst said.
“He gave details that, after looking at the vehicle, just didn’t seem possible,” Ernst said.
He said that further investigation by Christophel and subsequent interviews of Cellner, conducted with the assistance of Det. Chris Leamon and child-welfare workers from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, allegedly produced a significantly altered account.
Ernst said Cellner revealed that he accidentally sprayed the boy with scalding water in the bathroom of the home after the child had been sprayed by the radiator’s contents. Cellner claimed that he was just trying to wash the radiator’s contents off the child and did not realize he was spraying the child with scalding-hot water, Ernst said.
Cellner reportedly estimated that he’d held the boy under the spray for some amount of time between three and 15 minutes. The suspect also allegedly told investigators that the burns were inflicted June 27, five days before the child was brought to the clinic for medical attention.
Ernst indicated that investigators are not buying Cellner’s story of an accidental scalding.
“I don’t know how you could spray somebody with scalding water for any amount of time and not know it,” he said.
Even hot water that is not scalding produces vapors that easily can be observed in a bathroom, he said.
Cellner, who has been working as a security employee at the new Downstream Casino in Oklahoma near Joplin, remained in custody Thursday night at the Ottawa County Jail in Miami, with his bond set at $250,000.
The Sheriff’s Department said the boy has been released from the hospital but remains under medical care for his injuries. He has been placed in the custody of the state. Ernst said the name of the victim was not being released for investigative reasons.
It is the second bad case of scalding of a child to come to the attention of authorities in the Joplin area in the past year. A Joplin father, Edwin R. Ballentine, 21, pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree child endangerment in a case involving the scalding of his 8-month-old son in November. That child suffered second-degree burns to a leg.
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