A moment of frustration and a nearly month-long investigation ended with one Westport mother facing the judge Wednesday.

Wendy Nicole Mason, 27, 309 N. Range St., Westport, appeared in Decatur County Superior Court Wednesday for an initial hearing on charges of battery after allegedly hitting her 3-year-old daughter in the face. According to the reports filed in the Decatur County Prosecutor’s office by Indiana State Police (ISP) Det. Anthony Scott, Mason hit her daughter in the face “causing pain and bruises, bodily injuries in an unreasonable and unnecessary act of parental discipline,” which is defined as battery, a Class A misdemeanor.

According to the reports, ISP was contacted on March 6 by the Department of Child Services (DCS) to investigate a report of physical abuse on Mason’s 3-year-old daughter. DCS was originally contacted by the child’s school after she arrived for class in the morning with “bruising on both of (her) ears, red scratch marks on the right side of her face and possible blood blisters on the left side of her face.” After inspection by the school administrator and DCS representatives, Scott conocurred with the assessment the marks appeared to be from child abuse. When asked how she received the marks, the toddler told Scott and DCS reps, “Mommy smacked me.”

Mason told the child and the school it was a rash, the reports state, and pulled the girl from class that day for a doctor’s visit. The peditrician concurred with early assessments the mark showed signs of child abuse, the reports state.

The school administrator said the toddler was “a very happy and affectionate child, but on” that day she was “quiet and withdrawn.” The bus driver also informed Scott a week prior to the incident, the girl had a mark on her hand and informed the driver her “mommy bit” her.

Scott and DCS caught up with Mason, and after subsequent interviews over the course of a week, the Westport mom admitted to smacking the child.

According to the reports taken from a taped interview with Mason, she told police she was on “a very important phone call to the Attorney General’s Office about a bill collector” and her daughter was “already crying...mad...(and) running around the house making noise and she was being quite rude.” When the toddler ran into her mother, Mason said she “was frustrated so she back-handed (the girl) with her right hand, which knocked (the girl) into the poker table,” the report states. The force of the back-handed smack thrust the child into the table, which resulted in the injuries to her face, the report states. Mason added when she got off the phone and saw her daughter’s injuries, she checked her for bleeding then “kissed her and told her she was sorry.”

DCS has completed paperwork to remove the child from the home, and Mason will face charges of battery. Wednesday, she appeared for an initial hearing and entered a plea of not guilty.