Dad on trial for assaulting 10-week-old daughter (Warren, Ohio)

Father JEREMY HENDREX is on trial for assaulting his 10-week-old daughter. She suffered two skull fractures in the assault, and is now blind and developmentally disabled. Question: Why is the press airing the defense's rather silly and irrelevant tale of a "woman scorned"? What does that have to do with two head fractures?

http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/524426.html?nav=5021&showlayout=0

Injured child’s mom testifies
Father charged in shaken baby case

By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY Tribune Chronicle
POSTED: July 8, 2009

WARREN - Shari Jarome said she never considered the father of her child to be a threat to the 10-week-old.

From the witness stand Tuesday, Jarome, 27, agreed that Jeremy Hendrex was the ''most protective'' of the newborn Alyssa.

At times, Hendrex, 29, even insisted that visitors wash their hands before handling his daughter.

Hendrex, however, now faces charges of felonious assault and child endangering from injuries found on the child.

''Alyssa Jarome can't speak for herself today,'' assistant prosecutor Diane Barber told the jury in her opening statement, while describing how the baby was taken to St. Joseph Health Center in Warren late Sept. 22, 2007.

Seizures were observed by doctors there before the baby and mother were flown to Cleveland Clinic, where other doctors found two skull fractures, swelling on the brain and retinal bleeding. The girl is now blind - able to detect only streams of light - and developmentally disabled, according to the mother.

The doctors from Cleveland were expected to testify about the extent of the injuries as early as today. Trumbull County Children Services investigators are due to testify about at least two interviews they did with Hendrex, who remains free on bond.

Precise injuries in the form of head trauma are to be the topic of upcoming medical testimony.
Hendrex's attorney Patrick Donlin gave his own theory during opening arguments.

Donlin explained how the couple first met in 2002 while working at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky. They worked together for more than two years installing shelving and stocking inventory in newly opened drug stores across the country until Jarome became pregnant.

But Donlin said Jarome became a woman scorned after learning that Hendrex - within weeks of the baby's injuries - ran off to Sandusky and married another woman he had dated before meeting Jarome.

Jarome learned of the marriage while she was staying at the Cleveland Clinic and after she had been first questioned by investigators.

A judge earlier had denied a request for mistrial by Donlin due to advance publicity on the trial in the Tribune Chronicle.

A jury of nine women and three men is hearing the case in the courtroom of Common Pleas Judge Peter Kontos.