CINCINNATI – A woman took a stranger's toddler son over her knee and spanked him three times inside a store after he said something that annoyed her, police said Wednesday.
Gloria Ballard was arrested on an assault charge in the Tuesday incident. In a court appearance Wednesday, she asked for a public defender and a not guilty plea was entered for her. She was also ordered to stay away from 2-year-old Sean Goode and his mother, Donnay Jones.
Outside court, Ballard denied wrongdoing and said she gave the boy a hug and gently patted his backside because he was upset.
Jones said her son got spanked after Ballard told her she should make him behave.
"She was basically trying to tell me what to do with my son," Jones told WLWT-TV. She told Ballard she would handle her own business and son. Then, she said, Ballard took Sean from her and spanked him, causing him to cry.
"I was shocked," Jones told WCPO-TV on Wednesday.
Ballard, 43, faces a charge that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. She said she is a mother and grandmother who was just trying to help.
"And I got this," Ballard said, while holding a paper that described the charge.
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