A Michigan man is accused of physically abusing his Waupaca County parents while his children were present.
Christopher J. Ely, 39, Trenary, Michigan, is charged with two counts of aggravated battery of an elderly person and one count of mental harm to a child.
Ely’s children, ages 11 and 13, told Waupaca County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Gorchals that they were visiting their grandparents on Weiland Road in the town of Caledonia. They were inside the house while their grandparents and father were outside working in the yard.
The two girls heard their grandmother screaming. When they went outside, they saw their grandmother lying on the ground and their father driving away on a riding lawn mower, according to the criminal complaint.
While they ran over to help their grandmother, Ely allegedly parked the lawnmower, then began yelling and swearing at his father.
One of the girls told police that her father picked up her grandfather in a bear hug and was shaking him up and down.
During Ely’s altercation with his 71-year-old mother, he allegedly shoved her down, causing her to fall into a metal pole to which a basketball hoop had once been attached.
Gorchals reported that Ely’s 75-year-old father had bruising and a golf-ball sized swelling on his right forearm.