Today agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) arrested Mark Benjamin ‘Ben’ Ignatowicz, 33, for Unlawful Neglect of a Child or a Helpless Person.
Details of the investigation are in the attached warrant. SLED was requested by the York County Sheriff’s Office. Ignatowicz was booked at the Moss Justice Center in York County. The case will be prosecuted by the Seventh Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Mark Benjamin Ignatowicz is also the head of the York County Republican Party GOP Chair for the
The Warrant for Arrest and the Affidavit for Arrest both state that the father in this situation admitted after looking at the photographs that the spanking might have been too much. They also state the father had temporary Physical and Legal Custody of the child at the time. The incident in this issue is around March 27th, 2022.
Questions were raised as to why York County did not proceed with an investigation and why a State Agency such as SLED was brought in to do the investigation. And why did either agency wait so long to arrest this father?
As no pictures of the injury were available to this news outlet we can not report the severity of the child’s injury or even if the injuries were severe to prompt such actions against the father.
As many parents know there are moments when disciplining a child goes wrong. But as the warrant stated the father only spanked the child on his bare bottom using his hand. Could this have simply been a parent not knowing his own strength at the time? Or is this another example of a parent being interfered with by state agencies?
