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Mom accused of child abuse says it was accident

DENVER, N.C. — A Lincoln County mother said she would never hurt her own child but investigators said she twisted her 2-year-old son's leg so hard, she broke it.

"I'm not happy with it," Amanda Josey, 23, said. "I don't want to go to jail. If they think I done it, I didn't do it on purpose and it was an accident."

Lincoln County Sheriff's investigators said Josey and her husband took their son to Carolinas Medical Center Lincoln two weeks ago claiming the child fell on the floor of their Denver home and broke his leg.

But investigators said doctors examined the toddler's leg and determined the break happened after someone twisted it.

Investigators said Josey was angry because her son wouldn't stay still while she was trying to change his diaper. They said she twisted his leg so hard that it broke.

"I changed his diaper about 12, 12:30, and he went to crawl away from me and I pulled him back to me and when I did I accidentally hurt his leg," Josey said.

The child was fine minutes later, according to Josey.

"He was running in the kitchen, in the hallway, just like nothing ever happened," she said. "He fell around the corner and grabbed his right leg and just started screaming and crying."

Authorities said Josey confessed to the crime during a polygraph and was then arrested.

Josey is due in court Wednesday morning.

Her son is now in the care of his grandparents.