Dad gets 5 years for assaulting 7-week-old daughter while high on heroin (Phillipsburg, New Jersey)

I don't feel sorry for this freak at all. The evidence suggests that dad THOMAS GORDON started abusing the baby THE VERY FIRST TIME HE WAS ALONE WITH HER, which was when Mom's maternity leave expired. Within three days, he had nearly killed her.

It is a horrible shame that good solid loving moms are required to earn a paycheck when their babies are so young, leaving deadbeat druggie abuser daddies to pick up the slack on the home front. These guys are miserable failures at playing Mr. Mom. When are we going to figure that out and stop playing political correct games with our kids? And all the smackhead daddy gets is five years in prison for all the damage he did to this baby? The mom is outraged, as she has a right to be. She lost custody for 3 months because of this @$$hole.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/phillipsburg/index.ssf/2012/02/phillipsburg_man_who_shook_sev.html

Phillipsburg dad who shook, severely injured baby sentenced to five years in state prison
Published: Friday, February 10, 2012, 4:10 PM
Updated: Friday, February 10, 2012, 11:12 PM
By Sarah M. Wojcik | The Express-Times

Between tearful pauses, the mother of an infant shaken so violently that doctors thought she was permanently blinded told a judge this morning that the pain the father inflicted will never go away.

Thomas Gordon, 25, of the first block of Bullman Street in Phillipsburg, was sentenced today in state Superior Court to five years in state prison for aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Sara Loudenberry, the mother of the little girl, told Judge Ann R. Bartlett that although her daughter recovered, Gordon deserved a stiffer sentence.

“The impact this has had on me is indescribable,” Loudenberry said, describing 93 days she was barred from seeing her infant because of New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services concerns about abuse in the home.

“Thomas Gordon robbed me of bonding time with my daughter that can never be replaced," she said. "He’s a lost cause which is, I believe, why you should lock him up and throw away the key — so he can never hurt anybody else.”

Karl Keys, Gordon’s attorney, said his client was high on heroin when he violently shook and dropped the then-7-week-old baby in the Phillipsburg home. He was alone with the child at the time, according to authorities.

“He’s one of the most contrite, broken-up men I’ve met,” Keys said of his client. “I’m not trying to excuse what my client did, my client’s not trying to excuse what he did. He was high that night. He had no right to be around a child.”

Keys said his client has since learned that parents using heroin are dramatically more likely to use violence against a small child in such a way.

On Jan. 4, 2010, the couple brought the infant -- unconscious, not breathing and with severe injuries -- to then-Warren Hospital, records say. Neither parent offered an immediate explanation. Three days later, Gordon told police he had injured the baby.

Loudenberry described, with some difficulty, the list of injuries her daughter suffered: massive retinal damage, bleeding on the brain, torn ligaments in the throat and neck and bruised ribs. Doctors detected evidence of previous injuries that they dated to three days earlier, the first day Gordon was home alone with the baby after Loudenberry’s maternity leave expired.

Warren County First Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Ann Shelton said the prosecutor’s office staff “said a prayer” for the girl when officials there heard of the injuries.

“I saw seasoned DYFS workers who had seen horrifying cases breaking into tears at the sight" of the victim, Shelton said. “No one here should ever have to suffer the way this child was made to suffer.”

Loudenberry said she was told that if her child survived, she’d likely have extensive brain damage and full loss of her eyesight.

Somehow, she said, the resilient girl escaped her grim prognosis.

“The wonderful thing about this case, your honor, is that her daughter is now a thriving 2-year-old,” Shelton told Bartlett.

Gordon, wearing a bright yellow prison jumpsuit, said he was glad to hear his daughter recovered from her injuries.

“Sober, I would have never had done what I did,” Gordon said. “I’m happy she’s OK. I accept full responsibility and any punishment you are going to give me.”

A man and three women sat behind Gordon, clutching hands and occasionally dabbing their eyes. Keys said they were Gordon's family and were just as devastated.

“It was singularly the worse day of his life,” Keys said of Gordon. “It was singularly the worse day of his child’s life and singularly the worse day of the life of anyone who loved that child.”

The severity of the crimes to which Gordon pleaded guilty mean he must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he’s eligible for parole, under New Jersey's No Early Release Act. Bartlett said the earliest he could be released is in four years and three months.

Gordon faces three years of probation upon his release.