Judge: "Primary caregiver" dad's "alleged" abuse of 17-week-old son one of "most disturbing" cases to come before court (Limerick, Pennsylvania)

Dad JACOB GOVINDA has been charged with aggravated and simple assault, not to mention child endangerment. This baby was a newborn--just 17 days of age--when Daddy "allegedly" beat him, causing multiple fractures. And given that some of these injuries were in a healing stage, it seems that Daddy had been basically abusing the baby from birth. And notice the bruising injuries that suggest sexual abuse.

Once again, we have a case where Mom was having to work 40 hours a week--hardly two weeks after delivery!--while unemployed (e.g. deadbeat) daddy got drafted as "primary caretaker." You see, Daddy had "anger issues" with the baby's (overworked, exhausted) mother--even though if anything, it seems to me that MOM is the one who should have been angry with this lazy, freeloading piece of crap.

But what can you expect? This useless shit had an EXTENSIVE criminal record....and that's why he couldn't get a job, I bet.

http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/10/05/news/doc4e8cce999882c136308463.txt?viewmode=fullstory

‘Disturbing’child abuse case against Lower Pottsgrove man held for court action

Published: Wednesday, October 05, 2011; Last Updated: Wed. Oct 5, 2011, 10:10am

By Brandie Kessler

LIMERICK — Calling the alleged abuse of a 17-week-old infant at the hands of his father one of the “most disturbing cases” to come before his court, District Judge Walter F. Gadzicki Jr. held all the charges against the man and denied his bail reduction request Wednesday.

Jacob Govinda Zlomek, 24, of the 3000 block of East High Street, will stand trial on eight counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and recklessly endangering another person in connection with alleged abuse against his son, who was 17 weeks old at the time the injuries were discovered.

Investigators allege the “defenseless infant” suffered fractures to his skull, ribs, leg, forearms and shoulder at Zlomek’s hands, according to statements made by authorities during Zlomek’s preliminary hearing Wednesday.

“Any one of these fractures could have been life-threatening,” said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Wallis Brooks, who leads the district attorney’s domestic violence prosecution unit. She explained to the court that the injuries to the child were in “various stages of healing” when they were discovered.

“This was repeated, ongoing assaults on a defenseless infant under the age of 4 months,” Brooks said. “Basically, this child was used as a punching bag.”

Brooks said, and court papers support, that Zlomek gave police a statement admitting to behavior that could have resulted in the infant’s injuries.

“This poor child suffered multiple fractures at the hands of his father, self-admitted,” Brooks said.

Lower Pottsgrove Detective Joseph Campbell, who filed the charges against Zlomek, testified that he was notified of the alleged child abuse by the county’s Office of Children and Youth.

Campbell said he responded to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on Aug. 23 to investigate the alleged child abuse. At the hospital he met a case worker who explained the injuries the child suffered.

There were a total of eight fractures the infant had suffered, including fractures to his skull, ribs, leg, arms and shoulder, Campbell testified. He also testified that Zlomek and the infant’s mother, who Zlomek and the infant resided with, were at the hospital.

“I inquired abut how the injuries were obtained” and Zlomek provided a written statement, Campbell testified. Campbell said that in speaking with Zlomek and the infant’s mother he learned that the mother works approximately 40 hours each week and Zlomek, who is unemployed, was the infant’s primary caregiver during the time the alleged abuse occurred.

Campbell testified that “during my interview with Jake (Zlomek) he indicated he does have anger issues.” that he “takes his anger out on the baby,” and some of the injuries the infant suffered “occurred during (Zlomek’s) arguments” with the infant’s mother.

Campbell testified that Zlomek told him that on two to three occasions, he was arguing with the infant’s mother “and during the argument he may have held (the infant) too tightly causing the ribs to fracture.” Zlomek told Campbell that after these incidents he noticed the infant had trouble breathing.

Campbell also testified that Zlomek told him he “self-treated” the infant’s fractured skull, which he said occurred when the infant slipped out of his hands in June while he was bathing the child. Zlomek, according to court papers, told Campbell the infant “slipped out of his hands landing on the floor, striking his head and elbow ... and Jake treated the injury himself without calling an ambulance or doctor.”

Brooks presented several pieces of evidence to the court, including a report “70-something-pages” long “replete with all the fractures” the infant suffered, which came from the hospital. Additionally, Brooks said the charges against Zlomek were “conservative” given the evidence against him.

“A skull fracture on an infant?” she said in disgust. “It’s horrific and I believe the detective was conservative” with the charges. “This is as horrific a case of child abuse as I have ever seen.”

Among the other evidence against Zlomek, Brooks said, was bruising to the infant’s face, mouth, penis and groin areas.

Judge Gadzicki directed his attention at Zlomek when he said, “This is probably one of the most disturbing” cases to come before his court.

Louise Petrillo, the public defender assigned to Zlomek’s case, said she had no argument against the charges at the district court level, but she asked for a bail reduction.

Brooks said the prosecution “strenuously argues against bail reduction” noting that Zlomek is “a danger to his child and any other child he may come in contact with.”

Gadzicki agreed with Brooks and denied the bail reduction request.

Zlomek was remanded to Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $250,000 cash bail after the hearing.

At the time of his arrest, Zlomek was on parole after serving a 1-to23-month jail sentence earlier this year for a conviction of charges he had indecent contact with a Pottstown woman he knew while she slept in her home in May 2007, according to court records. In February, Zlomek, previously of North Sanatoga Road, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault without consent in connection with that incident. More serious charges of rape and sexual assault were dismissed against Zlomek as part of a plea agreement.

Zlomek also pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of possessing drug paraphernalia in connection with a June 2009 incident in Pottstown and was sentenced to one year of probation for that offense.