Jury acquits Las Cruces man accused of slapping 6-year-old daughter

A jury on Tuesday found a man accused of slapping his daughter not guilty of intentional child abuse.

“I don’t believe I was cruel or excessive,” said Juan Gutierrez, taking the stand in his own defense. “Now it seems as if I am being treated as a cruel and abusive father.”​

Gutierrez allegedly slapped his then-6-year-old daughter hard enough to leave bruises on her face. He said it was because his daughter was being disrespectful.

“‘This is not how we behave in this house,'” Gutierrez said he told his daughter. “‘We tried talking to you. You continue this behavior, this is not going to be accepted.’ I slapped her on one side of her face and I slapped her on the other.”

The girl was spending the night at his home in June on 2017. The girl learned from her step-mother, Gutierrez’s wife, that the girl would not be traveling with them on a family trip.

“He said I was being disrespectful to him and his wife,” said the daughter, now seven years old. ABC-7 will not name her because she is a minor.

Gutierrez told police he did not like his daughter’s response so he slapped her face twice, once on each side, as punishment.

The next day the girl’s face was red, swollen and had noticeable hand prints, police said.

The girl’s mother called police when she met Gutierrez to exchange custody. Investigators learned the girl had neck pain as a result of the alleged abuse.

“This is a case about parental rights,” Jeff Lahann, the defense attorney, said Monday. “This is a case about the right of any parent to discipline their own child, to make their own decisions as they see fit to discipline and correct their own child’s ill behavior.”

“The defendant used excessive force to discipline his 6-year-old child,” prosecutor Daniel Sewell said Monday.