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Police: Mom beat, choked girl over incorrect Bible verses

Posted at 11:38 AM, Mar 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-24 11:40:14-04

A woman severely beat her daughter, tried to strangle her and kicked her out of their house for incorrectly reciting Bible verses, police say.

Rhonda Kemp Shoffner's daughter, who is under the age of 13, was forced to kneel on the bathroom floor at their Middletown home and repeat Bible verses, police told Pennlive.com. The girl told police her mother had been drunk for three days.

Shoffner, police say, asked her daughter, "What did God tell the man to do with his son?"

When the girl said she didn't know, police say, Shoffner said, "God told the man to kill his son."

Police say the girl told them she replied, "God said to forgive his son," and Shoffner grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into the bathroom wall.

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They say each time the daughter made a mistake Shoffner slammed her head into the wall, about five times. They allege Shoffner told the girl to lie down because she was going to kill her and then tried to strangle her.

When the girl tried to fight off her mother, the mother bit her on the left shoulder and forearm, police say.

Eventually Shoffner told her daughter to leave the house and never return, police say. The girl fled and called her father, who drove her to a police station.

Shoffner faces charges including aggravated assault and terroristic threats over the March 14 incident, online court documents show. She was being held Thursday in a jail, unable to post $100,000 bail, and couldn't be reached for comment.

There was no lawyer listed for her in online court documents.

A preliminary hearing is set for March 29.