Former UFC fighter, Edwin Dewees, arrested and charged with child abuse

[VCURamFan]

From FiveKnuckles.com:

Former UFC fighter and Ultimate Fighter 4 alum, Edwin Dewees, was arrested last Thursday of July 28 and charged with two counts of child abuse after his twin two year old sons were found wandering alone on the side of a road in according to mmamania.com.

The two small children were found walking alone near Road 1 North and Cactus Wren in Arizona by a police officer. In the two hours that followed, local authorities from the Chino Valley Police tried to find the twins' caretakers but to no avail. Finally the two toddlers were returned home after their mother, wife of Dewees, reported them missing.

Dewees stated that he put the twins down for an afternoon nap only to find that they disappeared when he went to check up on them hours later. Dewees is being held at the Yavapai County Jail and his children are placed into child protective services awaiting further investigation.

Dewees was a participant in the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter, advancing to the semi-final rounds of the show before being eliminated by Patrick Cote. Dewee holds a 37-15 and one no contest record in his MMA career.

I would love to be hard on him but my son who was 4 at the time escaped from my wife undetected and tried to follow me on my walk. he made it across a busy main road and into the local bar before being returned by the local drunk who tore into my wife for being a bad mom. guess we should just leave our kids in the car while we go to the bar like her. In our defense we have 5 kids so losing one is pretty easy

[VCURamFan]

Yeah, I agree. I know that when I was a little kid, I was always wandering off on my own & getting into mischief. Sounds to me like, yeah it'd be better if they had kept an eye on the kids, but it wasn't like they were ignoring them on a regular basis or something.

Originally Posted by VCURamFan

Yeah, I agree. I know that when I was a little kid, I was always wandering off on my own & getting into mischief. Sounds to me like, yeah it'd be better if they had kept an eye on the kids, but it wasn't like they were ignoring them on a regular basis or something.

The part that worried me about the story was that the children were gone for over 2 hours.

You didn't check on your kiddos for over 2 hours?
2 hours outside, alone, barefoot in the arizona sun.

Doesn't sound like jail is necessary for this. Maybe just a stern lecture on keeping a better eye on his kids. Maybe he fell asleep or was busy and thought they were safely taking a nap. Calling it "abuse" isn't fair. It was more like he made a mistake and thought they were more secure than they were.

[Neezar]

Originally Posted by County Mike

Doesn't sound like jail is necessary for this. Maybe just a stern lecture on keeping a better eye on his kids. Maybe he fell asleep or was busy and thought they were safely taking a nap. Calling it "abuse" isn't fair. It was more like he made a mistake and thought they were more secure than they were.

Maybe. How old is your girl now, Mike?

When my boys were 2, I had a dead bolt on the door that only opened with a key. If I was busy or not where I could see the door then the key hung on a little hook high on the wall. Surely if they moved something over to climb up then I would have heard it. But anyway, I might have been a bit overprotective but 2 years olds are slick little weasels. lol

My daughter is 15 months old. So far, she hasn't wandered out of the house on her own. We take precautions to make sure she can't. However, if she did I'd feel terrible but I don't think it would make me a criminal that needed to be charged with child abuse.

yeah, this is a tough one ... maybe where he lives, it is ok to leave the doors open ... the kids are two, so they aren't picking locks ... LOL ... i would be hard pressed to call this abuse if it is the first time it has happened ... reminds me of a story of a friend i had in highschool, from the time his sister was 6 to 7 her parents would always make sure all the kids were bathed before bedtime, but the sister always had dirty feet come morning .. this went on for months, until the neighbor was coming home late at night from work and saw the sister wandering the downtown streets .. she was sleepwalking ... she would actually get up, open the doors and leave, the parents had to put a lock or chain way up on the door so she couldn't open it ... now that is scary .........

Originally Posted by rearnakedchoke

yeah, this is a tough one ... maybe where he lives, it is ok to leave the doors open ... the kids are two, so they aren't picking locks ... LOL ... i would be hard pressed to call this abuse if it is the first time it has happened ... reminds me of a story of a friend i had in highschool, from the time his sister was 6 to 7 her parents would always make sure all the kids were bathed before bedtime, but the sister always had dirty feet come morning .. this went on for months, until the neighbor was coming home late at night from work and saw the sister wandering the downtown streets .. she was sleepwalking ... she would actually get up, open the doors and leave, the parents had to put a lock or chain way up on the door so she couldn't open it ... now that is scary .........

wow that is scary!!

Neezer i'm overprotective too. I can not imagine having a child that would get away from me. I'm sure I would take extra precautions right away. so if the child protective services go to his house tomorrow he better have deadbolts and other things to keep the kids in. i got a cheap alarm type system that would just make a loud beep if the front and side doors if they were opened. I also had 2 safety latches on the sliding glass door so that they couldn't open that door either. all that and my kids never tried to get out.

I bet he will get a talking to and nothing criminal. It's hard to prove neglect unless someone was harmed.

Maybe not abuse? but neglect? Something.


A better question, how long does it take a child to die in arizona with no shoes or shirt in the desert in august?