Dad with history of DV arrested for attacking 11-month-old daughter; initially he blamed baby's toddler brother (Buffalo, New York)

Dad ATUAN JORDAN has a history of domestic violence--the mom has left him before. But he's back in the home and now doing child care while mom--you guessed it--works at a paying job. Did anybody seriously think that this kind of situation was going to work out? Abusers make BAD BABYSITTERS. Say it after me now....

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article668702.ece

Children’s under scrutiny in abuse case

CITY OF BUFFALO
By Lou Michel

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Published:
December 11, 2011, 12:00 AM

State Department of Health officials are taking a look at the circumstances involving two attacks on an 11-month-old Springville infant and whether doctors at Women & Children’s Hospital in Buffalo promptly reported them.

It wasn’t until after the second attack last month that authorities learned of the suspected child abuse.

“The DOH is reviewing the incident at Women & Children’s Hospital,” said Jeffrey W. Hammond, the health department’s spokesman, explaining that officials will determine whether the alleged abuse was reported in a timely manner.

The department’s review, he added, also will include whether the baby girl received an appropriate level of care.

A Women & Children’s pediatrician allowed the infant to be released to the custody of her parents following a five-day stay in the hospital after she had first been brought in for an injury involving hemorrhaging to the head that is believed to have occurred Nov. 9.

Antuan Jordan, the baby’s 23-year-old father, had denied harming his daughter, and the pediatrician decided tests should be conducted to determine whether a rare blood disorder had caused the hemorrhaging.

On Nov. 24, the infant was brought back to the hospital with a new injury, a damaged iris and hemorrhaging from a blow to the right eye.

Blood work, in the meantime, determined the baby did not suffer from a blood disease, and Erie County Sheriff’s Senior Detective James F. Hatch began an investigation that led to the arrest of Jordan on multiple charges of child abuse.

Jordan had accused his 21-month-old son of attacking his sister when the father was watching the two children in their Springville apartment while their mother was at work.

Doctors determined that someone of greater strength, an adult, pulled the infant’s hair with such force that it caused the hemorrhaging on the head in early November.

Women & Children’s Hospital declined to comment on the investigation Wednesday, citing patient-confidentiality policies.

But in a statement released by hospital spokesman John Moscato, the institution affirmed its commitment to complying with laws regarding reporting child abuse:

“As the Level I Regional Pediatric Trauma Center, it is the policy and responsibility of Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo to comply with all New York State laws regarding the reporting of suspected abuse or maltreatment.”

Mary Travers Murphy, executive director at the Family Justice Center of Erie County, said she could not comment directly on the Jordan case but spoke in general terms on the need to carefully review all cases of possible child abuse.

“We need health care professionals to be ever vigilant in looking out for victims. You can’t be taking the word of a possible perpetrator,” Travers Murphy said.

Jordan, a former North Carolina resident, moved here in February after persuading his girlfriend and the mother of their two children to take him back.

Police said the woman had moved from North Carolina to get away from Jordan because he was physically abusive to her.

Again not commenting directly on this case, Travers Murphy said, “Perpetrators use children as the pawn in order to control their victims. Why do people return to the abuse? There is no doubt in their minds that the abuser will make good on a threat.”

Meanwhile, the criminal proceedings against Jordan have moved out of Springville Village Court, and evidence against him is expected to be presented to an Erie County grand jury.

Jordan remains jailed in the Erie County Holding Center in downtown Buffalo.