11 year old accused of sexually assaulting 3 year old with stick

     Kountze police officers say they did not violate protocol when they picked up an eleven year old boy from his home for questioning about a sexual assault.

     The Kountze woman accused the eleven year old boy of sexually assaulting her three year old daughter with a stick Tuesday night at an apartment complex.

     The parents of the eleven year old boy were out of town. He was staying with a baby-sitter.

     Kountze police officers say they received the sexual assault report and notified the eleven year old's parents that they'd be bringing him in for questioning yesterday afternoon. The parents say they urged police to wait until either of the two could come home.

     "I've always taught him to respect the police and if there's a problem, go to the police. I wonder now how he looks at the police, you're 11 years old and the police aren't your friend anymore," said Steve Merimon, the boy's father.  

     "One thing for sure, we're gonna be in the guidelines. We're not gonna do anything outside the guidelines. Everything we do is gonna be legal," said Capt. Paul Darks with the Kountze Police Dept.

***** 6 p.m. Story:

     The mother of a three year old little girl told Kountze Police an eleven year old little boy sexually assaulted her daughter with a stick.

     "My daughter ain't gonna tell me somebody touched her when they didn't," said Passion Howard.

     The night the girl's mother made a report of the sexually assault to police the 11-year-old boy's parents were out of town. He was with a babysitter. The boy and his mother live in San Antonio. He was visiting his father. Steve Merimon, his father, drives a truck and was headed back from Arkansas.

     "I told them I didn't want him interrogated. I would be there by tonight and I'd bring him in first thing in the morning or tonight," said Steve Merimon.

     Officers picked up the eleven year old and brought him to the police station.

     "For a uniformed officer to take a minor child basically into custody and put him in a room and question them, without the parents there or even a lawyer, no representation present, ya that's a violation of rights," said Merimon.

     "One thing for sure, we're gonna be in the guidelines. We're not gonna do anything outside the guidelines. Everything we do is gonna be legal," said Capt. Paul Darks.

     Merimon says he found out later that the police did not question his son. They held the child in custody until his father arrived.

     "So he spent the night in juvenile detention until I got in," said Merimon.

     Passion Howard believes something happened to her child.

     "She's only 3 and she's got to live with this for the rest of her life," said Howard.

     The eleven year old says he did not do anything wrong. Officers will base their decision whether to file charges on clinical test results and the advice of medical examiners.

     Parents of both the 3 year old and the 11 year old gave KDFM permission to identify and photograph their children. KFDM blurred the faces and left out the names of the children because they are minors and no one has been charged.