27-year-old Bellefonte man facing charges in child abuse case involving 5-week-old
A 27-year-old Bellefonte man is facing felony charges as a result of an investigation involving injuries sustained by a 5-week-old child, police said Thursday.
Clayton Lee Dobson was charged by the Bellefonte police with two felony counts of aggravated assault, one felony count of endangering the welfare of a child, two misdemeanor counts of simple assault and one misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person.
The criminal complaint alleges Dobson shook, squeezed and swung the 5-week-old by its legs, which resulted in the hospitalization of the child with multiple injuries, including a brain bleed, seizures and several fractures.
The injuries were acute and subacute, meaning there were at least two incidents that led to the injuries, according to the criminal complaint.
Dobson also allegedly failed to prevent the child from falling onto the floor and failed to contact medical services when he discovered the child was injured. A doctor stated the infant was “near fatality,” according to the criminal complaint.
A child abuse pediatrician at the Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital saw the child on June 19 and classified the child’s injuries as child abuse, according to the affidavit of probable cause, saying the injuries could not have happened at birth.
The investigation began on June 20 after Bellefonte police were asked to contact Geisinger Medical Center regarding a child abuse case. The doctor told police a 5-week-old was brought in with broken ribs, a fractured tibia, fractured clavicle, a brain bleed, brain damage and uncontrollable seizures, according to the affidavit. The doctor said the parents were with the child and gave multiple stories as to what may have happened, including that the child was walking and fell.
Dobson told police that the child began seizing or twitching while visiting family, so they brought him to the hospital, the affidavit states. He said the child has been “rolling his eyes and going cross-eyed since he was born,” and that he brought it up with their doctor, who “didn’t seem to act like it was serious.”
When police obtained the child’s medical records, they did not show any injuries to the child from the five doctors’ appointments since the child was born. Current medical records show a subdural hematoma, post-traumatic seizures, hyponatremia, multiple fractured ribs on both sides, fractured tibia, fractured clavicle, a cervical spine ligament injury and fractures of the shaft of the right radius and of the distal phalanx of the right ring finger.
During a polygraph exam with state police, Dobson allegedly said one day the child “didn’t want to” wake up or was having trouble breathing, so he tried to do “whatever he could” to get the child to react and “may have hurt him.”
“I know the ribs were probably me and I was trying to get him to breathe and I panicked,” Dobson said, according to the affidavit.
When asked how the child’s legs were broken, Dobson said the only reasons he could think of were changing his diaper or falling, and he wasn’t sure if he held him the correct way, the affidavit states. He also allegedly said he swung the child by his legs.
In response to how the brain bleed may have started, Dobson allegedly said it could be from him shaking him, but “he never meant to hurt him.” He didn’t know how many times he shook the child, but said it was less than five times. This occurred while the child’s juvenile mother was at work, the affidavit states, and Dobson said he’s “not educated enough” to be taking care of a child.
Dobson was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker on $75,000 monetary bail. He was unable to post bail, and was confined at the county jail. His preliminary hearing is set for July 28.
