JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -Former NFL player Rich Tylski reached a deal to eventually drop child abuse charges against him after he admitted hitting his adopted daughter.
Tylski will be in the prosecutors' program for first-time offenders for about a year or until his completes anger and parenting classes, his lawyer, Robert Willis, said Friday. If Tylski completes the program, the charges will be dropped.
Assistant State Attorney Adair Rommel said prosecutors approved the arrangement to shield the girl from the ordeal of testifying against her former parents. She also said there were some conflicts in her accounts.
Tylski, an offensive guard who spent nine seasons in the NFL, played with the Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Carolina before retiring after the 2004 season.
He said in court Thursday that he spanked the girl with a belt beyond the scope of proper discipline.
His wife, Jane Tylski, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated child abuse. She will face the same requirements as her husband under terms of her two years' probation. The child, now 8, was removed from the Tylskis and placed in a new home.
Jane Tylski told Judge John Merrett she ``maliciously punished'' the child from 2003 to 2006 by striking her and bending back her fingers.
The child, whose name was not released, was taken to a Jacksonville hospital in March 2006 for a fractured right thigh bone. Her parents said she had fallen down the stairs about eight hours earlier.
Doctors found extensive bruising in various stages of healing. A skeletal survey found six or seven healing fractures in the child's hand.
The girl later told investigators that she lied about falling down the stairs and she demonstrated on a doll how her mother had pushed her leg over her head until they heard a pop, a police report said.
The Tylskis also volunteered to make a $12,500 payment into an educational fund for the girl's college education, Willis said.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
