Dad sentenced to 2 years for assault on infant son (Salem, Massachusetts)

Dad NICHOLAS PRATT has been sentenced to 2 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to injury to a child and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (Daddy threw a changing table). His infant son suffered a fractured skull during the incident. Or maybe it was from the time Daddy slammed the baby into his car seat--it's hard to say.

Witness intimidation charges were dropped as part of the plea. Oh yea, and Daddy gets to take lots of classes, too. You know, parenting, domestic violence, drugs, etc. I assume he'll get, ahem, very good grades....

Oh, and check out Dad's former line of work. Renting out "bounce houses" for children's parties. Oh yea. Great. Just the guy you want to be handling your kids.

http://www.salemnews.com/local/x2023222321/Man-jailed-for-assault-on-child

May 27, 2010

Man jailed for assault on child
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

SALEM — A Salem father was sentenced to serve two years in jail Tuesday after admitting to charges stemming from the injury of his child last year.

Nicholas Pratt, 25, formerly of 4 Bertuccio Ave., had originally been charged with shaking and slamming the child, who was found to have suffered a skull fracture after the Mother's Day incident a year ago.

But under the terms of a plea agreement reached between Pratt's lawyer, William O'Hare, and prosecutor Karen Hopwood, charges of assault and battery on a child causing injury and intimidation of a witness were dropped.

Instead, Pratt pleaded guilty during a hearing in Lawrence Superior Court to permitting injury to a child and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a changing table he threw.

Police said Pratt slammed the baby boy into a car seat, but were not able to prove whether the skull fractures stemmed from that or some other incident.

On the day Pratt's trial was set to get under way, Judge Richard Welch sentenced Pratt to 21/2 years in jail, ordering him to serve two years of that term, followed by four years of probation, the terms of the plea agreement.

Welch also ordered that Pratt have no contact with either the child, who is now about 18 months old, or his mother, pending a review by the Department of Children and Families, which took custody of the couple's children after the incident.

He was also ordered by the judge to take part in parenting classes, a program for men who abuse women, drug and alcohol treatment, and to maintain steady employment.

At the time of his arrest, Pratt was working for a company that rented out "bounce houses" and other amusements for children's parties.

Pratt has spent much of the past year in jail. He was briefly released by a Superior Court judge but was returned to custody after the man who had offered to let him stay in his Route 1 trailer had a change of heart.

Pratt was given credit for 341 days he's spent in custody, meaning that he will become eligible for parole in about three weeks.