U.S. soldier waterboards his daughter, 4, because she couldn't recite alphabet: police

Helen Kennedy New York Daily News 02/09/2010 04:29

A crazed G.I. was arrested for waterboarding his 4-year-old daughter because she wouldn't say her ABCs. Cops said Army Sgt. Joshua Tabor, 27, who served 15 months in Iraq, admitted to punishing his daughter by holding her down on the kitchen counter in suburban Washington State and repeatedly pushing her head backward into a full sink.

"He explained she's deathly afraid of water," said Todd Stancil, police chief in Yelm, Wash.

"He would lay her down on her back and push her head into the water right up to her eyeline. He was open about it. He did it all the time. To him, that was an acceptable form of punishment - because she wasn't able to say the alphabet."

Stancil said neighbors told cops that he also ran water over the flailing girl's face, taking her to the edge of drowning, but Tabor denied that.

"It was hot! The water was hot!" the girl said, according to the police report.

Tabor, who was arrested Jan. 31, will be arraigned Feb. 16.

"We originally booked him on third-degree assault, but if he did put the water over her face, that would constitute a more tortuous type of crime," Stancil said. "We are looking into those allegations."

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