Vikings' Star Adrian Peterson Indicted For Negligent Injury To A Child

Vikings player Adrian Peterson indicted on negligent injury of a child charges http://t.co/6l2xvzTOUo pic.twitter.com/VvdBydm6aV
— 105.3 The FAN (@1053thefan) September 12, 2014

Allegedly he used a "switch" (so very Old School).  Things that are a problem: It's on the arm. The kid was four. There may be other injuries than just on the leg.

Here's the critical law: Force against a child is justified "when and to the degree the [parent] reasonably believes the force is necessary to discipline the child or to safeguard or promote his welfare."   And, despite that language in the Penal Code, it's not whether Peterson reasonably believed the force was necessary, it's whether a "reasonable person" would believe it to be necessary.

Regardless of whether this is a crime, I'm not sure why CPS and/or the DA's office simply couldn't have told him: "Listen, you can't do this. Take a parenting class at our choosing, successfully complete it, and we'll drop this whole thing. Nope. In this day in time you get an indictment. The Montgomery County DA is known for being an Attention Ho.

Huge Caveat: If there are a ton of injuries that make us all cringe, I retract the above paragraph

Edit: It's interesting that the first grand jury refused to indict him, so the DA just took the evidence to the next grand jury. Amazingly, in Texas, that is the way it works. If a grand jury tells a DA to take a flying leap on a particular case, the DA just waits for the next one. And if needed, the next one and the next one.