Daycare owner arrested for battery

By: 
Staff Writer Kate Wehlann

Salem daycare owner Regina Sabens, 48, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 2, for battery resulting in bodily injury.

Just before 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 23, Kacy Bullock and Charlene Tullis went to the Salem Police Department and asked to speak with an officer. Officer Natalie Boling said Bullock’s left eye was bruised and she had stitches on her eyebrow and appeared upset.

Bullock told her she went out with Sabens to the Salem Moose Lodge to have some drinks the previous Friday. Between midnight and 1 a.m. Saturday, Bullock drove Sabens to her home and the two had a verbal argument inside. Bullock said Sabens then grabbed her by the head and hit her head on the kitchen counter. Bullock went to the hospital.

Tullis said Bullock was embarrassed at the hospital and told staff she had fallen down some wooden stairs. Bullock said this wasn’t the first time she and Sabens had been in a physical disagreement. She said Sabens had hit her and ripped out a chunk of her hair on Sept. 28.

Tullis told Boling Bullock was also out of a job and Bullock said she had previously worked for Sabens at The Learning Center Preschool and Childcare on East Hackberry Street, where she had three coworkers, not including Sabens. Bullock said Sabens never came to work intoxicated, but had on occasion not shown up for work at all.

On Dec. 23, Boling and Officer Nigel Smith went to Saben’s home to speak with her, but she wasn’t home. The next day, Smith told Boling Sabens’s car was at the home and they went again to speak with Sabens.

Sabens agreed she and Bullock went out drinking and that Bullock brought her home. She confirmed the verbal argument and said she asked Bullock to leave multiple times, but Bullock refused and pushed her. Sabens said Bullock “pushed her buttons” and she grabbed Bullock by the hair and hit her head on the counter. Boling said in her report that Sabens told her Bullock was much bigger than her and she had to defend herself. Sabens said Bullock had not injured her.

Sabens said she didn’t call the police to help her get Bullock out of the house because “it all happened so fast,” but that she did call the police a few months before when there was an incident. Boling said in her report there was no record of this call.

Boling told Sabens what Bullock said about being out of a job and Sabens told the officers she hadn’t fired Bullock, but that Bullock had requested pay for two days that she was not going to work and that Bullock hadn’t returned to work after the incident. The officers left a voluntary statement with Sabens.

On Christmas day, Bullock returned to the police station with her hospital discharge paperwork and signed a battery affidavit. That same day, Boling called Sabens to ask if she was finished with her statement and Sabens said she didn’t know if she wanted to fill it out because she thought it might hurt her case. She said what happened was self defense and that Bullock had pushed her around, leading her to hit Bullock’s head on the counter. She eventually said she would have it done by the next day.

When Boling and Officer Mike Voelz went to Sabens’s home the next day, there were cars in the driveway, but no one answered when the officers knocked. Boling prepared a report for review and requested a warrant be issued against Sabens for battery resulting in bodily injury. Sabens was arrested on Jan. 2, and as of Friday afternoon, Sabens had a $10,000 bond.

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