Dad found guilty of assaulting 6-month-old daughter (Reading, Pennsylvania)

Notice that despite the conviction, dad DANIEL W. MILLER may spend no time in prison. 

Not one word on where Mom was while Daddy was "caring" for all these kids. Working to support this deadbeat abuser?

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=421976

Originally Published: 10/19/2012

Reading man guilty of injuring baby by shaking 
Daughter assaulted at home, jurors told

By Holly Herman
Reading Eagle

A 35-year-old city man was convicted Thursday in Berks County Court of simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child for shaking his 6-month-old girl, causing injuries that medical authorities testified could be permanent.

However, Daniel W. Miller of the 300 block of Locust Street was found not guilty of aggravated assault for shaking his daughter on Nov. 16, 2011.

The jury deliberated for four hours following a trial before Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate.

Miller was returned to the county jail in lieu of $1 million bail to await sentencing in November.

His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Sean Fitzgerald, said that at sentencing he would like to ask for his client to be released from prison for time served. 

"I am glad he was found not guilty of the aggravated assault," Fitzgerald said.

Assistant District Attorney Jonathan H. Kurland argued that the girl was assaulted when she was home with her siblings and her father. 

"The damage to the brain and injuries was not caused by a fall," Kurland said. "This was not an accident. This was an act of violence that was caused with rage and malice. These injuries were intentionally caused."

Kurland said that Miller was the only adult who was home when the child was injured. The victim's 5-year-old sister testified she saw her father hurt her baby sister.

"He was squeezing her," the girl testified.

Fitzgerald argued that prosecutors did not prove Miller shook his daughter and that the sister might not understand what happened because she told Children and Youth Services workers that her father was watching a horror movie. "

A 5-year-old might not be able to distinguish fantasy from reality," Fitzgerald said.

Dr. Andrea Taroli, director of a child protection team at Hershey Medical Center, concluded that the baby girl was shaken.

Taroli said the injuries could have been life threatening and may cause long-term problems, such as cerebral palsy.

Taroli said the baby suffered chest bruises and bleeding around her brain.

Taroli then showed a presentation of a normal baby and a baby who was shaken.

"When the brain is shaken it causes stretching of the brain tissues," she said. "That happens when people have concussions."

Taroli said the girl's injuries could not have resulted from a fall.

Dr. David Sorrentino, a Reading Hospital neonatal expert, said he treated the girl for several weeks after she was released from the hospital.

Sorrentino testified that the child was badly injured.

Miller was arrested Feb. 14 following a grand jury investigation.