A Boy, A Board, And Felony Charges
The case centers on Courtney Crites, a 32-year-old woman from Belington who now faces three counts of felony child abuse. According to a criminal complaint filed in Barbour County and posted on DocumentCloud, police allege that Crites repeatedly struck a boy with a wooden paddle, kicked him, and forced him outside in freezing conditions as punishment for minor misbehavior.[1] A report from Law & Crime first detailed the allegations from the complaint and related court records.[2]
Crites was arrested after a local child advocacy center interviewed multiple children who were living in the home she shared with her boyfriend. The interviews, according to the complaint, were recorded and later reviewed by police, who then sought charges. The public filings do not specify exactly how Crites is related to the boy, only that she lived with him and several other minors at the Barbour County residence.[1]
How The Allegations Reached Investigators
The criminal complaint states that law enforcement became involved after receiving a report that a child living in the Belington home might be experiencing abuse. A regional child advocacy center then conducted forensic interviews with five children said to reside with Crites and her boyfriend. Those interviews were recorded and turned over to police.[1]
One of those children, identified in the complaint as a male juvenile, became the primary victim in the case that produced three felony counts. The complaint notes that officers watched the recorded interview and documented his statements in an affidavit sworn by the investigating officer. That affidavit forms the basis of the charges now pending in Barbour County magistrate court.
What The Boy Described To Police
In the interview, the boy described a pattern of physical punishment that went beyond what most courts consider lawful corporal discipline. According to the complaint, the child said Crites would kick, hit, and yell at him. The officer wrote, quoting the interview, that “During the interviews [police] observed the male juvenile to state that Ms. Crites had kicked him, hit him, and screamed at him.”[1]
The boy specifically alleged that, about two months before the interview, Crites kicked him in the groin. The complaint records his statement that she “kicked him in the privates once, approximately two months ago.” He also said that when she became angry she would sometimes walk past him and kick him as she went by.
Investigators wrote that the child reported bruises on his shoulder, chest, and back from being hit. According to the complaint, he said the bruises lasted “a couple months.” The document does not describe contemporaneous medical records, photographs, or a forensic medical exam, so it is unclear what physical corroboration, if any, officers had at the time the charges were filed.
The Wooden ‘Attitude Adjuster’
Central to the complaint is a wooden board the boy said Crites used as a paddle, which she allegedly named “the attitude adjuster.” According to the sworn statement, the child told interviewers that if he did not put “his clothes away the right way” Crites would punish him with this paddle.[2]
On one occasion, the boy said, Crites forced him outside in freezing weather before later allowing him back into the home. Once he was back inside, the complaint states, she struck him with the paddle until the board broke. The child told investigators the wooden paddle was about two inches by four inches thick and roughly two feet long. The criminal complaint quotes him as saying that after she broke the board on him, he was “scared to death” of Crites.[1]
The documents do not say whether officers recovered the broken board, nor whether any other child in the home reported seeing the incident where the paddle allegedly snapped. The complaint notes, however, that multiple children were interviewed, and that their statements collectively supported the decision to file felony charges.
What West Virginia Law Says About Child Abuse
West Virginia law draws a clear line between lawful parental discipline and criminal child abuse. Under West Virginia Code section 61-8D-3, a person responsible for the care of a child can be charged with felony child abuse if they intentionally inflict bodily injury on a child or allow it to occur.[3] The statute covers conduct that results in physical harm, even if the injuries are not permanently disabling.
According to the complaint and reporting by Law & Crime, prosecutors in Barbour County charged Crites with three felony counts under this statute, each tied to alleged incidents of physical abuse described in the boy’s interview.[2] Each charge, if proven, could carry significant prison time and fines as set out in state law.
Court records cited by Law & Crime indicate that Crites was being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail, with bond set at $100,000. She was scheduled for a disposition hearing in magistrate’s court. The criminal complaint and public reporting do not specify whether she has entered a plea or whether an attorney has publicly responded to the allegations.[2]
As in any criminal case, Crites is presumed innocent unless and until prosecutors prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
Gaps In The Public Record
While the complaint provides extensive detail about the boy’s statements, several key facts remain unclear in publicly available documents. The filing does not specify Crites’s exact relationship to the alleged victim, referring to him only as a juvenile living in the same home. It also notes that she resided with “other minor children” but does not list their ages or whether any protective custody steps were taken after her arrest.[1]
The document does not describe any injuries observed by law enforcement at the time of the report, nor does it indicate whether the boy had been examined by medical professionals to document bruising or other harm. It also does not mention any criminal charges against Crites’s boyfriend, leaving his legal status in relation to the case unknown.
There is also no information in the complaint about the exact temperature or duration of the incident when the boy was allegedly forced outside in the cold. The phrase “freezing cold” appears in the narrative, but without further detail about weather conditions or how long he remained outside.[2]
What Comes Next
The next significant developments in the case will likely occur in the Barbour County courts, where prosecutors must present evidence to support the three felony counts and where any defense attorney for Crites can contest the allegations. As of the latest publicly available documents, no trial date was noted.
For now, the most detailed account of what may have happened inside the Belington home comes from a series of taped interviews and a single sworn criminal complaint. Whether additional evidence will emerge in court, and what it will reveal about the boy’s description of the “attitude adjuster” and the other children who lived in the home, remains an open question.
