WFTV sits down with Devery Broox, found not guilty in YouTube child abuse case

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,None — Only WFTV sat down for a one-on-one interview with the man at the center of a controversial child abuse case. It comes less than 24 hours after an Orange County jury found Devery Broox not guilty of the crime.

Broox, who was mentoring a young child, shaved the boy's head, spanked him, forced him to exercise military-style, then posted video of it all on you-tube.

Watch: Complete interview with Devery Broox

Watch: WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer on corporal punishment

WFTV's Daralene Jones asked Broox if he will still mentor the boy.

Broox first met the 7-year-old child after his great-grandmother tried to scare him with a tour at the Orange County jail.

"I directly recognized myself in him. That's why I was drawn so close to him," Broox said.

The boy had been acting out in school, even stealing. But when her tactics didn't work, she asked Broox, who she had met through a friend, to step in.

Broox said, at first, he took away playtime, but quickly realized corporal punishment was the only thing that would get the boy to straighten up.

"For those who received corporal punishment and it worked, they could open their mouth and say, 'If I didn't receive corporal punishment, I would probably be in jail,'" Broox said.

Broox said the day he shaved the boy's head and eyebrows, spanked him, forced him to do military workouts, then posted video of it all on you-tube was the first time he had hit him with a belt.

Police were only tipped off to the incident because Broox himself recorded it, then put it on YouTube.

Daralene Jones: What was the point of you recording the video, and then putting it on YouTube?

Devery Broox: I wanted to inspire people to be more of a mentor, and to re-grasp this idea that it takes a village to raise your child.

Broox was on scholarship at UCF studying African-American studies and history before his arrest. He said that's where he learned about the alarming number of black children being raised in homes without father figures.

Attorney Carlus Haynes said one juror who never made it on the panel after questioning is what helped him win the case.

"She spent about two or three minutes educating the other jurors about the change that she saw within the school system once corporal punishment was taken out," attorney Carlus Haynes said.

Broox said he plans to continue mentoring the child, but he isn't sure if he'll fight to get back in school.

UCF kicked him out and he lost his scholarship after he was charged with child abuse.

"I believe that I make mistakes, but I believe that God doesn't make mistakes," Broox said.

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