February 10, 2010 – After three days of trial, a jury deliberated for forty-five minutes and returned a Not Guilty verdict on two counts of Aggravated Child Abuse against R.B. (client’s name is withheld as he intends to expunge his record).

Aggravated Child Abuse in Tennessee is a Class A felony, carrying between 15-60 years in prison with no parole. In this case, the client was facing a potential 50 year sentence without the possibility of parole.

The victim was Alexander, R.B’s son, who was the product of a casual sexual relationship between R.B. and Y.R. At the time the abuse was discovered, Alexander was approximately 10 weeks old. He had rib fractures and a lung bruise, which was found after he spit up blood one afternoon and x-rays were conducted. There is no doubt the child was abused. The only question was “who did it?”

The proof at trial included the testimony of two doctors, a detective, the mother of the child, the grandmother of the child, and a social worker at Vanderbilt. R.B. testified on his own behalf, as well as his roommate at the time. Both R.B. and the mother were students at Tennessee State University when the abuse occurred.

On the morning of June 10, 2003, Alexander was dropped off with R.B. It was a Wednesday (R.B., who worked and went to school, typically watched his son on Tuesday and Thursday – the other days he was watched by his mother and his maternal grandmother). When the mother picked up Alexander around 4:30 pm that day, she tried to feed him, but he wouldn’t latch. Then, he spit up on her blouse, demonstrating small flecks of blood in the mucus.

She lost it (her testimony and R.B.’s). R.B. proceeded to try to keep his son calm, exercising his legs in a bicycle motion on the bed, and keeping him away from (in R.B.’s view) his overly excitable mother. She eventually went to the pediatrician, then to the ER at Vanderbilt, where the internal injuries were discovered.

The mother’s testimony was, at best, erratic. She contradicted herself within mere seconds on cross examination and could remember very few details vividly. She stated she reported a bruise on Alexander’s arm to the pediatrician on May 12, but there was no indication of that in the medical records. The pediatrician said that when bruises are discovered on immobile infants (like a 10 week old), they ask the primary caregiver to follow up with their office. Y.R. never followed up.

Prior to this incident, she had fully informed R.B. of the medical status of their son (the pediatrician confirmed that even for first time mothers, her interactions with the pediatric practice were “in the upper quadrant” – and, nothing abnormal was ever discovered). This time, however, despite knowing the truth, she refused to tell R.B. what was wrong. Instead, she told him the doctors were running tests and they didn’t know anything. She also told him that Vanderbilt wasn’t allowing visitors to see Alexander. This was told to him again the next day. Finally, he went to the hospital himself on Friday and learned the real situation. At no time had Y.R., the mother, told him his son was in intensive care. On cross examination, she explained she wanted the doctors to tell him what happened, but could give no explanation as to why. She said she tried to repeatedly call R.B., but he wouldn’t come see his son – this was contradicted by the testimony of the social worker and her mother, who both said they asked her to call the child’s mother, but neither one ever saw her do so. I was getting frustrated, so naturally the state’s objection that I was being argumentative was rightly sustained.

R.B.’s roommate at the time noted she called him frantic and unstable a week or two before the injuries were discovered. He, along with even the state’s witnesses, testified they had never seen R.B. lose his temper and he generally had a calm demeanor.

R.B. immediately went to see the Detective who was investigating the case and the Department of Children’s Services investigator. Y.R. and her mother waited nearly a month to cooperate with the investigation, and then only went with their attorney.

The medical proof showed that the rib fractures could have occurred no sooner than five days before they were discovered, and potentially up to two months before. The lung bruise was a separate injury. It would have been acute (inflicted within hours of discovery), and no later than 3 days prior. The Vanderbilt pediatrician, Dr. Christopher Greeley, testified that it likely occurred the same day. The child’s pediatrician, Dr. Kris Rehm, testified to the same time frame. She also noted that if sufficient force was inflicted on a child of Alexander’s age, the baby would be exhausted from the pain and would likely sleep for hours and refuse to eat. This was exactly the behavior of Alexander while in his father’s care on that Wednesday after being dropped of by his mother.

After a very short deliberation, the jury returned a Not Guilty verdict on behalf of R.B.

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