A pediatrician from Delaware, Dr. Melvin Morse, 48, and his wife Pauline, 40, were both charged with several felony counts Tuesday after their 11-year-old daughter told police that her dad had subjected her to "waterboarding" several times by holding her face under a running faucet.
According to CBS News, waterboarding simulates drowning and it has been used in the past by U.S. interrogators on terror suspects.
Many critics call it torture.
When he was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly waterboarding his daughter, Morse was already out on bail on charges of assault and endangering the welfare of a child due to an earlier incident this past July when he allegedly grabbed his daughter by her ankle, dragged her across a gravel driveway at his home, and began spanking the child.
When police interviewed Morse Monday, the 11-year-old daughter told police that her father began waterboarding her as early as 2009.
State police said the girl was subjected to such punishment at least four times and that her mother witnessed some of the incidents but did not stop them.
Also this past July, Morse had been charged with threatening a 65-year-old man back in May. Morse was charged with terroristic threatening in that incident.
Morse's medical license is currently suspended.
Morse was being held yesterday on $14,500 secured bail. His wife Pauline has been released from jail earlier on $14,500 unsecured bail. Both were ordered to have no contact with their two daughters or with each other. The 11-year-old daughter and her younger sibling were placed in the care of child protective services.
The Morses both face a preliminary hearing on August 16.
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