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Child details abuse involving hot sauce after police find him alone in hotel room

DANVERS, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- The mother of a 4-year-old boy who police say was alone in a hotel room was in court Thursday facing allegations she and her boyfriend had abused and neglected the boy.

Sitting outside Salem District Court Thursday, the boy's grandmother, Lee Ann West, was furious to hear her daughter allegedly left the 4-year-old alone in a Danvers hotel room for hours.

"She left him home alone. Stupid. But she did. And now she's paying for it," West said.

Katherine Rodriguez answered to charges after she left her son by himself, and didn't stop her boyfriend, Christopher Delcid, from abusing him.

Police found the boy alone in a room at an Extended Stay America where he lived with Rodriguez, Delcid, and two other children. When asked why he was alone, the boy told police he was being punished because he was bad. The 4-year-old told police Delcid had poured hot sauce into his mouth and duct taped it shut. He also said that he had bumps and bruises because Delcid punched him and hit him with a belt and shoe. Delcid, 21, was arrested Tuesday and police took Rodriguez into custody Wednesday night.

"Delcid has put hot sauce in his mouth and then put duct tape over his mouth as a punishment for bring bad," prosecutor Lindsay Shaheen said in court Thursday. "Officers were able to also see bruises covering his buttocks."

West says she doesn't believe her daughter abused the boy and thought Delcid was great with her grandkids until now.

"I didn't know he was whacking him with a belt. That would never go with me," she said.

Delcid, who is a Chelsea Housing Authority employee and not the boy's biological father, pleaded not guilty in court to charges of assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury and child abandonment. He has been held on $250,000 cash bail.

The child's mother, Katherine Rodriguez, was in court Thursday facing arraignment on child abandonment charges and permitting injury to a child.

Delcid and Rodriguez have two other children together, a  6-month-old and 18-month-old. All three children are now in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.