Baby sitter faces additional charges
Southwest Regional police filed additional charges against a Bentleyville man accused of allegedly assaulting a 6-month-old baby in his care.
Police investigations conducted with doctors at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh allegedly showed the baby’s left leg was fractured and that she had head injuries consistent with a “shaking” injury, authorities alleged.
Joshua Tannous, 19, is charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. He also faces various charges for allegedly abusing the baby’s 2-year-old sister at a home in Belle Vernon.
Tannous, who babysat the children, is also charged with aggravated assault, allegedly endangering the welfare of a child, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person for alleged abuse of the 2-year-old daughter of Matthew and Tracy Price. The girl had two broken collarbones, multiple bruises and lacerations, police said.
The most recent charges stem from an incident Feb. 4, when Tannous is alleged to have tried to feed the 6-month-old a bottle of milk.
Police allege that Tannous admitted to drinking alcohol with Matthew and Tracy Price that night. The Prices reportedly told police said the baby was fine before they went to sleep.
The criminal complaint said after the Prices went to bed, sometime in the early morning hours, Tannous heard the baby crying, so he picked up the child to feed her.
Tannous alleges that milk began pouring out of the child’s nose, and that she fell unconscious and stopped breathing. Tannous woke Matthew and Tracy Price and told them the 6-month-old was not breathing, police said.
Police alleged that baby’s eyes rolled back in her head between four to five times while the family was waiting for first responders to arrive. The complaint filed in the case alleged that Tracy Price continually worked to keep her child awake. She reportedly told police that after Tannous told her that the baby had choked on the milk, she noted that she didn’t see any milk on the child’s face or shirt and did not smell any milk.
The complaint said during a follow-up appointment conducted at Children’s Hospital, Dr. Janet Squires discovered a fracture on the baby’s left leg that was healing and that there were bruises within her head.
“It is very likely that the initial symptoms were caused by inflicted injury, likely of shaking/shearing head injury,” Squires said in her report to police. “The leg injury occurred near timing of initial period of unresponsiveness. The secondary injury reinforces (diagnosis) of physical abuse.”
The complaint alleges that Feb. 20, Squires created the following addendum to her report:
“The child was a victim of child physical abuse …. finding of bilateral subdural hemorrhages (SDH). Bilateral SDH are most commonly caused by abusive head injury. Would be a good explanation for the unresponsive spell of Feb. 4 and timing of fits… there is no medical evidence to suggest that this child has an underlying medical condition. We believe the child’s injuries are caused by the abusive actions of an adult.”
Tannous’ preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday in Magisterial District Judge Richard Kasunic’s courtroom.
Last week, Tannous and Matthew and Tracy Price appeared before Kasunic in connection with the allegations regarding the 2-year-old child. The Prices were charged with child endangerment in that matter and agreed to testify against Tannous. The couple waived the charges against them to Fayette County Court.