Fort Wayne dad charged with Felony 5 battery to a child, neglect

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---A Fort Wayne father is to appear in court today, charged with physically abusing his young daughter.

At 4 a.m. Wednesday, Kane Christman, 26, was captured on home video spanking his daughter as she ran by him, choking her and “placing his hands on her” as he straddled her, with her legs behind him, according to a probable cause affidavit submitted by Officer David Bush with the Fort Wayne Police Department.

Bush arrived around noon at the residence Wednesday and talked to the children’s mother. She was asleep around 4 a.m. when she heard her daughter “screaming” and “crying uncontrollably.”

Kane Christman

The girl said her father had spanked her. Christman said she was “caught out of her bed and refused to go to bed. So he spanked her.”

Other children in the home were the girl’s brother and an infant, court documents said. 

The mother explained to the officer that Christman had a history of abusing his daughter and he’d been convicted of domestic battery.

Since that incident, she installed cameras throughout the house, she said.

The prior domestic battery occurred in March 2020, according to online records. Christman was sentenced in November, 2021 to adult probation and community corrections. He was ordered to take the class “Alternatives to Violence” along with mental health and substance abuse evaluations.

Thursday, Christman was charged with Felony 5 domestic battery to a child and neglect of a dependent, both charges resulting in injury. 

This story will be updated.