Dad charged with assaulting 11-week-old son (Wayne, New Jersey)

Notice that Mom had just returned to paid employment and Dad was apparently doing the so-called caretaking. But like a lot of men, he's just not up for the job.

Dad is identified as ROBERT JACOBY.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/wayne-dad-faces-assault-endangerment-charges-in-injury-to-infant-son-1.1007065

Wayne dad faces assault, endangerment charges in injury to infant son

May 1, 2014, 1:28 PM Last updated: Thursday, May 1, 2014, 7:58 PM

By MARY DIDUCH and ABBOTT KOLOFF staff writers The Record

A 33-year-old Wayne man has been charged with assaulting his 11-week-old son, who he had brought to an emergency room with serious injuries including brain trauma, authorities said Thursday.

Robert Jacoby brought the baby to Chilton Medical Center in Pequannock on Monday after the boy had suffered injuries that day at his Wayne residence, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said in a release. The hospital contacted the Prosecutor’s Office about the baby’s injuries, leading to the arrest of Jacoby on Tuesday, authorities said.

The baby was in critical but stable condition with a “substantial brain trauma” Thursday after being transferred by Medevac helicopter to another hospital, said Senior Assistant Prosecutor Gyselle Da Silva. She declined to name the hospital, citing concerns about the family’s privacy. The baby was taken there, she said, because of the severity of his injuries and is being treated in a pediatric intensive care unit.

She also declined to say how the baby’s injuries were caused and said she did not know exactly when the alleged assault took place, or whether there were any witnesses. The baby’s mother was not with Jacoby when he took the child to the hospital on Monday, Da Silva said.

The family lives at the Kings Arms Garden apartment complex off Hamburg Turnpike, where a neighbor said on Thursday that the parents were ecstatic about the birth of their son. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she held the baby in her arms on Sunday, and had not heard about the injuries.

“He is so cute,” she said of the baby.

Both parents “are nice people,” she said, adding that the mother recently told her she got a job and the father had been kind to her, shoveling snow to help get her car out of a parking space over the winter. She said she does not believe the father would hurt his son, suggesting, “It’s probably an accident.”

The baby’s family could not be reached Thursday and did not respond to a message left at the apartment complex.

Jacoby was arrested at the Prosecutor’s Office in Totowa and charged with one count of aggravated assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, Valdes said. He was being held Thursday in the Passaic County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bail, with no 10 percent option, Da Silva said. He also is prohibited from contacting the victim.

A hearing in state Superior Court in Paterson has been scheduled for Jacoby for May 21, according to jail records. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, Valdes said.