A Lansford man is scheduled to appear in court for attacking his 3-year-old son.

Joseph Mongi, of the 600 block of Patterson Street, faces charges of endangering welfare of children, two assault counts and harassment.

According to the affidavit of probable caused filed by Detective Joshua Tom of the Lansford Police Department:

On Sept. 17, Mongi told police his estranged wife was threatening him over marks on one of the children’s buttocks.

Borough police Chief Jack Soberick was met by Mongi and was shown a picture of three linear marks across the midpoint of the child’s buttocks.

The redness surrounding the margins appeared to be finger prints and red lines that looked like scratches.

On Sept. 18, Carbon County Children & Youth conducted a Child Advocacy Center interview at the Lehigh Valley Children Hospital in Allentown. The mother of the victim transported the child to the appointment.

On Sept. 27, Mongi was asked to come to the station for an interview, and agreed to meet with Tom.

Mongi said to Tom that on Sept. 16, he took both of his children to a softball game, and during this time the victim wet his pants and needed to be changed. Mongi said that this happened several times throughout the evening, and that he did not observe any marks on his son during these times.

Mongi said he FaceTimed his wife so that the child could say good night. During this conversation, Mongi admitted to his wife that he spanked the child for having several such incidents throughout the day.

Mongi said that he woke up in the morning and gave both boys a shower. During this time is when he said he first noticed visible marks on the one child’s buttocks, however, he said that he did not spank him to the degree that would leave these marks.

He was now claiming that the mother must have spanked the child sometime through the night on Sept. 15.

On Oct. 31, Mongi’s wife told that Mongi on Sept. 15 picked up the children and her and came to Lansford. She said that she put the child to bed on this night.

On Feb. 6, the wife was interviewed with the assistance of the state police Cpl. Alan Pietkiewicz and ruled out as a suspect.

Mongi admitted during his interview that he lost his temper and he spanked his child; that he FaceTimed and also admitted to his wife that he spanked their son; and that Mongi’s allegations against his wife in this case was proved to be false.

Mongi is scheduled to have a pretrial conference on June 14.

He remains free on $3,000 unsecured bail.

Road rage

This isn’t Mongi’s first brush with the law.

In April 2014, Mongi was sentenced on six counts of recklessly endangering another person, and one count each of simple assault and persistent disorderly conduct to a total of four to one day less 24 months in prison followed by one year of probation.

He was convicted by a jury on Jan. 10 of that year of the charges that were filed by Mahoning Township police in a road rage incident that led to a crash on Oct. 23, 2012.

It was noted that Mongi had his young son in his truck with him.