Branding Your Kids Allowed? Man Who Marked Teenage Sons Walks

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (CBS/AP/KIRO) A jury in Port Angeles, Wash. acquitted 39-year-old Mark J. Seamands, the man who by all accounts branded his children, of second-degree assault charges, but deadlocked on two lesser charges of fourth-degree assault causing the judge to declare a mistrial.

The children were branded with the letters "SK," which stands for "Seamands' kids," according to CBS affiliate KIRO.

Seamands' two teenage sons testified that they had wanted to be branded. His 18-year-old daughter was also branded, but the dad wasn't charged with assaulting her because she was old enough to give consent.

The father also branded himself. He testified he wanted to bring the family closer together while he was going through a divorce.

Seamands' ex-wife says she was horrified when she saw the scars on the youngest boy's chest, the other boy's arm and the back of the daughter's leg, according to CBS affiliate KIRO.