By Kay Fate, Rochester Post-Bulletin

A Rochester woman faces criminal charges after authorities say she choked a boy until he couldn’t breathe.

Cassie Ann Garza, 37, was charged by summons with domestic assault by strangulation, a felony, and gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child. Her first appearance in Olmsted County District Court has been set for April 6.

The investigation began Jan. 26, when Olmsted County Community Services received a report of child abuse. According to the criminal complaint, the boy had “a bunch of broken blood vessels under his neck, like a big hickey,” as well as across his entire neck and under both eyes. His left ear was also bruised.

He allegedly told a staff member at school that Garza had “choked him and wouldn’t stop,” but had told him not to tell anyone because she could get in trouble.

When an investigator met with the boy the next day, he initially told her he had a “rash” on his neck from playing around with his brother, and the marks on his eyes were a result of him rubbing them.

The investigator asked the boy about what he told school staff, court documents say; he told her he didn’t want Garza to go to jail, and “she didn’t mean to do it.”

He went on to say the injuries happened Jan. 25, when he and Garza argued about a pair of shoes. Garza demanded the boy’s phone, but he refused, prompting her to warn him that if he didn’t listen, she was going to “put him down,” the complaint says.

The victim admitted he made an obscene gesture at Garza and called her “stupid;” that’s when Garza allegedly came up behind the boy, grabbed him around the neck with both arms and squeezed. It was difficult for him to talk and breathe, the reports say.

Garza eventually pushed him to the ground, took his glasses off and put her knee into the left side of his face, the complaint says, then pulled his hair and “twisted it hard.”

The boy reportedly told authorities that Garza had hurt him before, punching him in the face, smacking his head into the wall, grabbing him by the face and choking him.

Garza told police the red marks on the boy were from a rash, adding that he lies if he doesn’t get his way.

According to medical records, the boy had evidence of broken capillaries on the neck and inside both eyes, which the doctor concluded was caused from a choking episode, not a rash or hives.