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South Union Twp. parents charged with severe neglect of toddler, infant

By Alyssa Choiniere achoiniere@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

The mother and father of a 2-year-old girl and a 12-week-old boy are behind bars facing charges for severe neglect of their children.

The state police investigation into Maria Sue Sparks, 22, and her fiance, Cody Matthew Goisse Sr., 24, of 3 Bryson Boulevard began on April 27, when the girl ingested some of her mother’s seizure medication. The toddler was flown to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Doctors found patterned scratches on her head and bruising to her torso and legs, in addition to high levels of the mother’s medication. State police reported to the home and found a lack of food and cockroaches throughout the apartment, including in the baby’s formula, bottle and pack and play. Officials took the baby to the hospital, and he was found to have lost weight since birth. He was so malnourished he was suffering liver injury, according to court documents.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Sparks told police she left the apartment to go to Dollar General the day her daughter ingested the seizure medication.

When she left, Goisse and the girl were asleep on the couch and the baby was asleep in his pack and play, Sparks told police. She said her prescription was in a child-safe bottle in her purse on a shelf “almost out of reach.” She came home five to 10 minutes later to find the girl crouched over her purse and pills scattered inside it. She ran to Goisse’s mother’s nearby apartment. They returned, woke up Goisse to call 911 and gave the girl salt water.

A child welfare report prepared for the girl at the hospital said the ingestion of the pills and injuries “raise substantial concerns for maltreatment.”

“The extremely perfectly patterned formation on her forehead was highly concerning for inflicted trauma,” it went on to say.

The baby’s report indicated he was born at 7 pounds, 12.7 ounces and weighed 0.2 ounces less at the hospital. Newborns typically gain 5 to 7 ounces per week, and he should have gained about 3.75 to 5.25 pounds since he was born, the attending physician’s report said. The baby was last seen by the doctor when he was about 2½ weeks old, and weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

The report said his “physical appearance is striking – he lacks all subcutaneous fat and has folds of skin that hang off him. Every reasonable adult in his life should have noted this and sought care for [him].”

Goisse explained the weight to the doctor by saying the baby had “a high metabolism.”

Both parents were interviewed by state police and attributed the girl’s scratches to falling into a hamper, door or wall when she was unbalanced after taking the pills.

Sparks claimed to feed the baby regularly, with formula every 1½ to 2 hours and baby food, saying they shared responsibility. She claimed the baby had 10 to 15 bottles and one to three jars of baby food per day. She told police that the baby is “sometimes so hungry that [he] will eat two containers of soft baby food in five minutes.” She said “he eats so much that she doesn’t understand how they could say he is malnourished.”

Sparks told police the baby often threw up formula, and thought he had an upset stomach before he was taken away because he was throwing up frequently. She claimed he would gain and lose weight, and that they wondered if something was wrong with his intestines, or if something was wrong with his liver because of medication she took during pregnancy.

Sparks told police they do not have any trouble affording food, and said she works five days per week for Grubhub.

Sparks said she called the doctor about the baby’s weight, but no one answered. Goisse said he packs formula for Sparks when she goes to work. He said several times in his interview with police that he was not very concerned about the baby’s weight, and he told Sparks about one week before the incident to see the pediatrician instead of going to the hospital because “he can’t afford to wait hours at the hospital” and “it wasn’t worth the wait to find out nothing was wrong.”

Both Sparks and Goisse are charged with two counts each of aggravated assault of a person less than 6 and simple assault, and three counts of endangering the welfare of children. They were arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Jennifer Jeffries, who set bail at $150,000. They remain in Fayette County Prison in lieu of bail.

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