Police: SouthSide Woman Hit Girl with Metal Hanger

A 55-year-old woman is accused of hitting an 11-year-old girl with a metal clothes hanger Thursday at a South Bethlehem rooming house where they both live, according to court papers.

Donna E. Hicks of 614 E. Atlantic St. was charged with simple assault and harassment in the attack, which, according to the warrant, raised a welt above the girl’s right eye.

The victim was not her daughter, but reportedly the daughter of eyewitness Kelly Grim, who reported the attack to police.

Grim told police that when she and her two daughters arrived at the home shortly after 3 p.m., Hicks started yelling at them, accusing them of stealing her daughter’s coats and calling them derogatory names.

Hicks followed Grim upstairs and continued to confront the girls, while holding the metal hanger, eventually grabbing the youngest girl by the head and striking her in the face with the hanger using “somewhat of a stabbing motion.”

Hicks was arraigned before on-duty District Judge David Tidd of Lower Saucon Township and released on unsecured bail.