Dad with history of DV accused of beating 3-month-old baby because the "child woke him up"; judge admits he shouldn't have granted personal recognizance bond (Orangeburg, South Carolina)

Dear Judge Houser:

This is what happens when judges blow off domestic violence. This is what happens when batterers and abusers are given bargain-basement "personal recognizance" bonds for beating up women. You guys complain all the time about how the victim doesn't want the batterer to go to jail, like it's some big psychological failing on her part. But it's actually an desperate attempt at self-preservation. Since you let these criminal back on the streets and back into their homes with scarcely a tap on the wrist, doesn't it make sense that the victim will do anything possible to avoid even the appearance of antagonizing the criminal? Get a grip, sir.

Your poor judgement in this case has led to a vicious attack on a 3-month-old baby who very likely will live with a lifetime of neurological disabilities as a result. And you even put the City's SWAT team at risk of violence, since they had to go the the baby basher's house and root him out of there.

Dads like BRANDON RICKENBACKER need to be dumped in jail and left in jail.

http://www.thetandd.com/news/article_6b30e6d6-e025-11e0-af05-001cc4c002e0.html

Dad accused of beating 3-month-old child
By RICHARD WALKER, T&D Staff Writer The Times and Democrat
Posted: Friday, September 16, 2011 3:30 am

Authorities allege a father beat his 3-month-old, causing a concussion, when the child woke him up.

Brandon Rickenbaker, 26, has been charged with unlawful conduct toward a child, criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and malicious injury to personal property.

Orangeburg City Judge Barney Houser set bond on Rickenbaker Thursday at $100,000 surety.

Houser then revoked a personal recognizance bond he set on the Orangeburg man last month for another domestic violence charge, saying he should have set a higher bond.

"If I had, maybe none of this would have occurred," the judge said. "This has really gotten severe with the child being harmed."

Houser informed Rickenbaker he will have to adjudicate his Aug. 18 charge of criminal domestic violence before he can entertain any thought of addressing the $100,000 surety bond.

Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Capt. Mike Adams said the city's SWAT team was dispatched to a Whaley Street residence Wednesday to extract Rickenbaker from his home.

"I'm going to tell you, things could have turned out a little bit different," Adams told the court.

Officers say they surrounded the residence and extracted the subject from his hiding spot in the attic and behind the chimney.

"I should have just come down," Rickenbaker said.

Houser told Rickenbaker he could be facing 10 years each on the charges of unlawful conduct toward a child and domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.

ODPS Criminal Domestic Violence Investigator Jennifer Haig told Houser the infant was transported to the hospital where he was determined to have suffered a concussion as a result of a beating.

"He was crying when he (Rickenbacker) woke up and was assaulted," she said.

"I'm very sorry, I don't want anything to happen to my son," Rickenbaker said. He said he needs counseling for alcohol abuse.

According to an ODPS incident report, police arrived at the home around 2:23 a.m. Wednesday to find a 27-year-old woman at a neighbor's house with her "face covered in blood and she was crying hysterically."

Through her hysteria, the woman told police she had been fighting with her boyfriend.

While waiting on Emergency Medical Services, investigators photographed the woman's injuries.

"Although upset and crying hysterically, (the victim) stated she did not wish for Mr. Rickenbaker to go to jail," the report states.

When police obtained a tape recorder, the woman said she didn't know what happened.

However, a female relative of the subject said she and the woman were in the living room talking when the woman said she was going to bed. The woman then checked on the 3-month-old child, who was lying with Rickenbaker.

Authorities allege that when the infant moaned, the subject "hit the baby in the back of the head with an open hand and then closed fist, this time striking the baby in the back of the head with his knuckles."

The report claims the woman then began yelling at the subject, who used profanity and said "Y'all shouldn't have woke me up."

The subject allegedly threw the woman around the residence while beating her. He smashed her face into a bathroom wall, leaving a "huge hole" in the sheetrock, the report claims.