Dad jailed after 14-month-old son dies from "suspicious" injuries (Denver, Colorado)

Dad JARED JIMINEZ is in police custody after his 14-month-old son died from "suspicious" injuries. Given Dad's criminal history (including assault, menacing a victim with a deadly weapon, DISMISSAL of a temporary restraining order), there is certainly cause for alarm.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT: Where is this baby's mother? Why wasn't this boy in his mother's care, instead of in the care of a violent felon? Mom working? Visitation? What?

By the way, "economic hardship" per se doesn't cause child abuse. What does cause child abuse? Working moms utilizing unemployed/underemployed fathers--especially those with criminal records--for child care.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15386937

Denver man jailed after 14-month-old son dies
By David Olinger
The Denver Post
Posted: 06/27/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 06/27/2010 09:16:31 AM MDT

Jared Jimenez is suspected of child abuse. The father of a 14-month-old baby in Denver has been jailed as a child-abuse suspect after his son died Friday at Lutheran Medical Center.

Police were called about 1 p.m. after an ambulance arrived at the hospital. The father reported that his son had fallen out of his crib, but by the time the ambulance arrived at the emergency room, the baby's heart had stopped beating, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The dying baby was whisked from the emergency department to an operating room, where doctors tried in vain to revive him, the spokeswoman said.

Because the fatal injuries were suspicious, Denver homicide detectives took the 26-year-old father, Jared Jimenez, into custody to investigate whether the boy died of child abuse. The father was still in jail Saturday night, police said.

Denver police have not released the name of the boy or identified where he lived. They confirmed, however, that the father had a prior criminal arrest record.

According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation and state court records, Jimenez had been arrested seven times since 2004, mostly on minor charges that included a misdemeanor assault and driving under the influence.

He faced felony charges of assault and menacing a victim with a deadly weapon in 2005, but court records indicate those charges were dismissed along with a temporary restraining order.

Babies are particularly vulnerable to abuse and more likely to die from even a moment of violence. Nationally, 42 percent of the children who died of abuse or neglect in 2007 were less than a year old. Seventy-five percent were 3 years old or younger.

In Colorado, about 30 children die from abuse or neglect each year, and the toll has been rising since 2005.

The Kempe Foundation for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect points to poverty as a contributing factor: Statistically, child abuse increases as economic hardships grow.