Background: A Target store location in Homestead, Fla. (Google Maps). Inset: Martha Juliana Mendoza (Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A Florida woman was arrested after police said she beat up her daughter for going to Target with her friend.
Martha Juliana Mendoza, 43, is still in custody after being charged with child abuse, battery by strangulation, and aggravated assault in connection with an incident reported by her daughter on Wednesday night. According to an arrest report reviewed by Law&Crime, the daughter, whose age was not provided, called police after she said her mother attacked her. Police said the daughter told them she went to Target with a friend earlier that day, and when she returned home, her mother "grabbed her by her hair" and "began hitting her head against the wall."
In the arrest report, police said the daughter had "visible redness to her face" when they arrived at Mendoza's home in Homestead, Florida, late Wednesday night. The daughter said she told her mother in a text that she was going to Target with her friend. While she and her friend were out, the daughter said Mendoza "was texting her the whole time," asking where she was and telling her to come home.
Police said when the daughter got home, Mendoza "grabbed her by her hair" and pulled her into the home while telling her she "was being disrespectful." After allegedly hitting the girl's head against a wall by the front door, Mendoza then pulled the girl into the kitchen and "sat on her chest" to the point that she "could not breathe," the girl claimed. The girl said she pulled her mother's hair in self-defense to get her off her chest.
After calling a truce on the hair-pulling, Mendoza allegedly tried to hit her daughter with a mop. The daughter then allegedly grabbed her mother's hair again.
According to police, Mendoza called 911 to report her daughter.
When police arrived and read Mendoza her rights, she agreed to speak without a lawyer present. Mendoza told police that when her daughter told her she was going to Target, she told her she could not go, but she "still went anyways." In a text message, she told her daughter to bring her friend into the house so she could meet them, but she did not do that.
Mendoza told police that when her daughter returned home, she admitted to grabbing the girl's hair after she came into the home "because she was laughing." Police said Mendoza denied sitting on her daughter's chest, but admitted to sitting on top of her during their physical altercation. She also denied that she hit her daughter with the mop. According to the arrest report, Mendoza said her daughter was "screaming and yelling and cursing at her."
Both Mendoza and her daughter refused medical attention. The daughter chose to stay at the home with her maternal grandmother. Police said the Florida Department of Children and Families was contacted in connection with the incident.
Mendoza was arrested and charged with battery by strangulation, child abuse, and aggravated assault. She remains in custody at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center; her bond has not been set. Her next court date was not available.
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