All charges in alleged infant assault bound for court
A Uniontown man who police allege assaulted an infant had his case held over for Fayette County Court Tuesday.
According to the criminal complaint, Marlin Alan Brown II, 25, is charged with simple assault, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.
Citing a medical report from UPMC-Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, the criminal complaint alleges that a child sustained a fracture to her right leg and neck bruises in September 2013.
Police allege that the child’s mother, Jeree Latoya Silva of Uniontown, took the child on Sept. 9 to the emergency room at Uniontown Hospital after she noticed the girl was acting “fussy” and noticed a cut to her upper lip.
Police allege that Silva also saw that there were red marks on the girl’s neck and shoulders and that her right leg was swollen.
The complaint said Silva told police that she thought the child’s marks may have been caused by the car seat being too tight, so she loosened the straps.
The girl was later taken to UPMC-Children’s Hospital.
Fayette County Children and Youth Services conducted an investigation into the injuries.
Officer John Kauer, Uniontown police, said during Tuesday’s hearing that a medical examination revealed an acute fracture to the right leg that could have been inflicted within one to five days of the hospital visit and multiple other fractures to left leg and left foot that could have happened within the previous six weeks.
Brown’s attorney, Deanna Fahringer, said Tuesday that her client had watched the child for five months without any incident prior to what is alleged to have occurred. She said Silva has reported no alleged abuse from Brown and that the cut on the lip was allegedly caused when a sibling threw a sippy cup at the girl.
Farhringer said the medical examination and the police investigation does not pinpoint exactly when the injuries occurred, so they could have happened when Brown was not watching the child.
“There has been no evidence presented that my client intentionally struck this child, or ever struck this child, or attempted to cause any type of bodily injury to the child,” Fahringer said. “We don’t believe, based on the testimony provided, that the commonwealth can meet their burden on any of the charges based on the fact that they presented no evidence that my client was the sole person to have this child in his care and in his custody.”
Assistant District Attorney J.W. Eddy countered, “Infants cannot testify in court, obviously. These injuries and this type of abuse have to be proven via other means. In this particular case, we have evidence of what is obviously a pattern of abuse. There are wounds suffered by the child. There are breaks and other injuries that the medical report indicates are at various stages of healing, which means this is not an isolated incident, but rather a pattern of abuse to this child. If there is a pattern of abuse to the child, it logically follows that it must have been committed by one of the child’s caretakers. There is testimony and a statement from the mother that it was not her doing. The only other logical person it could be is the defendant.”
Brown was charged before Magisterial District Judge Michael Metros and has remained free on $25,000 unsecured bond.