Investigators said the neighbors turned in the mother, Sherri Mazzola, 38, after she used the whip on her son, age 13, when he did not meet her demand of cleaning the bathroom.

A Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said the victim, when questioned by neighbors about a bruise on his face, first told the neighbors that he had fallen off his bike. Investigators said the boy later told neighbors his mother had hit him with a “horse whip,” a broom and the plastic top of a spray can, over a two-day period, when he failed to clean the bathroom within five minutes, while she kept time.

The boy suffered welts to his buttocks, back and legs and a cut to his forehead, where he was struck by the plastic top of a spray can, said deputies.

Mazzola was incarcerated at the Dona Ana County Detention Center and has since bonded out. Wednesday KFOX went to the home of Mazzola, but nobody answered the door. The home is located in the 700 block of Hayride Road, north of Las Cruces.

One neighbor was afraid to go on camera in fear of retaliation but told KFOX they knew the boy because he would do yard work for many of the residents. The neighbor told us he was a good kid and wasn't surprised to hear about abuse charges against the mother.

Another neighbor didn't know the child but was shocked to hear about the charges.

"It's pretty surprising. To brutalize a child like that, especially a kid of 13-years-old, I mean we see the kids ride up and down on bikes but there's only a couple of kids on this block," said Justin Graves who lives on Hayride Road.

This is the child abuse case in Dona Ana County in the last two weeks.

KFOX reported how Angel Lorraine Jimenez, 5, died after, authorities said, her mother, Jessica Barron, age 27, beat her. Barron is being held on a $100,000 cash bond on one count of child abuse resulting in death.

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