Mom Urged Daughter To Beat Pregnant Girl
Cops: Ex-con, 34, facing child abuse rap
AUGUST 21--A Florida woman is facing a child abuse charge for encouraging her 14-year-old daughter to fight with a girl who 
was six months pregnant, police charge.
“Beat her ass,” Celena Troupe, 34, yelled as her daughter exchanged blows Friday morning with the pregnant minor.
Investigators allege that Troupe, an ex-con, knew that her child’s opponent was pregnant, but “actively encouraged” the fight, which was recorded by an onlooker. Troupe, cops say, “did not make any effort to stop or restrain her daughter from fighting during the first 2 to 3 min of the altercation.”
Seen above, Troupe was arrested for felony child abuse and booked into the Pinellas County jail. The St. Petersburg resident was released from custody Friday evening after posting $5000 bond.
An arrest affidavit does not indicate whether either of the teen combatants was injured.
In an interview, Troupe told TSG that while she did direct her child to “beat her ass,” the pregnant girl “hit my daughter first.” Troupe contended that her daughter was initially jumped on a school bus home, and that the confrontation continued after the students exited the bus (which is when Troupe met up with her child). “They hit my baby first,” said Troupe. “We were the victims.”
Troupe, a convicted felon, has a rap sheet with numerous convictions. She has served two separate state prison terms in Florida, the most recent of which was a two-year stretch ending in April 2013.
Three months after her release from custody, Troupe was arrested in Georgia for escorting without a license, a misdemeanor for which she subsequently pleaded guilty. (1 page)
