Matthew Graham, 28, of West Thompson Lane, was arrested Friday, Jan. 21 for aggravated child abuse of his girlfriend’s 7-year-old daughter.

The girl’s condition was reported to MPD by a doctor at Murfreesboro Medical Clinic when the doctor became “concerned with ‘bruising’ that was on the child’s face and neck,” MPD Detective Wayne Lawson reported.

The girl told investigating officers she had a “nightmare that a man was in her room choking her and telling her to stop moving,” Lawson reported.

The girl’s neck and face showed it may have been more than a dream. She had bruising on the right and left sides of her neck and broken blood vessels on her face, which are evidence of strangulation.

Lawson’s investigation revealed only two people were in the home when the incident took place, the girl’s mother and her boyfriend, Graham.

Graham refused to give a statement to investigators and found indicted by the January Grand Jury on aggravated child abuse charges.

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In a separate case, a report of child abuse by school officials to the Department of Children’s Services also resulted in the arrest of another mother’s boyfriend for child abuse.

Eleazer “Chucky” Wiggins, 42, of Givan Court, was arrested Friday, Jan. 14 for child abuse.

Wiggins’ girlfriend’s 11-year-old son was seen at school with a large bruise on the right side of his face with scratch marks near the bruise.

The boy said Wiggins struck him for telling a lie and Wiggins admitted to striking the boy “as part of punishment,” Lawson reported.

Wiggins was arrested for child abuse and taken to the Rutherford County jail.