Man Gets 5 Months in Abuse of Boy, 12

Less than a year after a prior conviction for abuse, a Van Nuys man has been sentenced to five months in jail, this time for hurling a 12-year-old boy against a closet wall, Los Angeles City Atty. Jim Hahn announced Friday.

Steve John Stan, 25, was ordered to immediately begin serving the sentence after he pleaded no contest Thursday to a charge of child abuse in the Dec. 13 attack on the son of a girlfriend. The sentence was imposed by Van Nuys Municipal Judge Martin Suits, who found Stan in violation of his probation from a Feb. 26 conviction for attacking the girlfriend.

Prosecutors said the 12-year-old and his two younger brothers, ages 3 and 7, reported that Stan was in a rage for no apparent reason when he entered a bedroom, shoved the 7-year-old in the stomach, then picked up the older boy by the shirt and threw him in a closet. The boys’ mother, 30, called police.

When officers arrived, they found the 7-year-old shaking and sobbing uncontrollably and the 12-year-old hiding in an upstairs apartment, where he had fled, said Deputy City Atty. Kenneth Tso.

In addition to the jail sentence, Stan was placed on three years’ probation and ordered to attend 52 sessions of parenting classes.