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Inset: Jordyn H. Whitlaw (Columbia County Jail). Background: Evans Towne Center Park (WRDW).
Over the weekend, a 34-year-old mother from Georgia was taken into custody following accusations of physically abusing her 5-year-old daughter during a bustling festival. The mother reportedly defended her actions by insisting she had the right to do as she pleased since the child was her own.
The woman, identified as Jordyn Kahanamoku Whitlaw, is facing charges of second-degree cruelty to children, according to official records.
Details from a report acquired by Law&Crime reveal that deputies from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, who were present at a Mardi Gras festival at Evans Towne Center Park, were alerted by a bystander. The witness informed the deputies that they observed a woman mistreating a young girl at the playground area.
The bystander recounted that while seated at a picnic table near the playground, she overheard a woman commanding, “Get down.” When she looked up, she reportedly saw Whitlaw forcefully push the child against a chain-link fence and confront her aggressively.
The report highlights that although the witness heard Whitlaw shouting at the child, she couldn’t discern the exact words. The child began to cry, prompting Whitlaw to allegedly grab her ears and continue yelling. Whitlaw is then accused of seizing the girl by the neck and repeatedly slamming her head into the fence.
When the woman yelled for Whitlaw to stop harming the child, Whitlaw allegedly “responded by saying she could do what she wanted because it was her daughter.” The witness then ran to get the deputies.
Another witness said she saw Whitlaw push the child “into the fence for a timeout.” She said that when the child ran away, Whitlaw caught up to the 5-year-old and “grabbed her by her hair and carried her back to the fence” and “threw [the victim] into the fence again.”
After turning away from the scene briefly, the witness said she looked back and saw that Whitlaw “had her hands around [the victim’s] neck.”
“She saw that [the victim] was crying,” the report says. “Another woman then ran toward Whitlaw and [the victim] to defuse the situation. Whitlaw said to the woman, ‘That’s my daughter, I can do what I want.’”
A third witness said the ordeal began with the child “not listening” to Whitlaw. The third witness confirmed Whitlaw threw the child into the fence and “grabbed her by the throat,” emphasizing that Whitlaw, not the child, was the primary aggressor.
Deputies said the 5-year-old had a visible red abrasion on the right side of her neck. Whitlaw was taken into custody at the scene after the victim’s father arrived to take custody of the child. A report was also filed with the state Department of Family and Child Services.
It was not immediately clear when Whitlaw was scheduled to appear in court.