Dad gets 10 months for breaking infant's ribs (Baraboo, Wisconsin)

UNNAMED DAD has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for breaking his 4-month-old daughter's ribs in an attempt to "silence her crying." What a freaking idiot. He also gets the parenting and anger management classes, yada yada. I think that if you need a class as an adult to teach you that breaking a baby's ribs for crying is not okay, then it's too late too educate you.

http://www.wiscnews.com/baraboonewsrepublic/news/local/article_b76b8876-4f49-11df-8ba2-001cc4c03286.html

Baraboo man gets 10 months for breaking infants ribs
By Brian D. Bridgeford / News Republic Posted: Friday, April 23, 2010 9:30 pm

A Baraboo man must serve 10 months in jail after his sentencing Thursday for recklessly breaking his infant daughter's ribs in an attempt to silence her crying.

The 21-year-old parent appeared in Sauk County Circuit Court on a felony count of recklessly causing bodily harm to a child. The News Republic is not releasing his name to avoid identifying the victim in the case.

According to the criminal complaint, a Sauk County Sheriff's Department detective was investigating a child abuse allegation stemming from the defendant and his wife bringing an injured 4-month-old child to Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital on March 28 of 2009. During an examination of the child the SPMH physician found five ribs on the child's left side were healing from a facture, the complaint states.

The defendant told the detective that at about 9 a.m. on March 16, 2009 he was giving the child a bath and she was crying. He squeezed the child and told her to stop crying. He admitted he squeezed the child pretty hard to "shock her" so she would stop crying, the complaint states.

A University of Wisconsin Hospital doctor who also interviewed the man told the detective the infant's injuries were consistent with the squeezing the father described, according to the complaint.

In February the man pleaded no contest to the charge, according to Sauk County court records. During Thursday's hearing the prosecution and defense reviewed the pre-sentencing investigation report and heard a victim impact statement from the infant's mother.

The man's defense attorney asked the judge to settle the case by imposing probation alone. However, the judge ordered three years on probation including a 10-month term in the Sauk County jail with work-release privileges.

The judge also ordered the man to take a variety of counseling including parenting, anger management and drug and alcohol treatment, according to the records. The man must maintain absolute sobriety from alcohol and any drugs unless he has a prescription.