http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x2141126094/Father-held-for-abuse-of-infant-girl
Father held for abuse of infant girl
By Charles Winokoor, Staff Writer
GateHouse News Service
Posted Jul 28, 2009 @ 10:12 PM
Taunton —
A 20-year-old Brockton man is being held on $100,000 cash bail after his arraignment Tuesday for what authorities say was a brutal, physical assault on his own baby daughter.
Jesse Rosa, last known address 62 Prince St., was arrested Monday in Taunton at 10 Paul Bunker Drive and charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury resulting.
The baby, now just 4 months old, was found to have suffered fractures to both of her legs, elbows, clavicles (collarbone) and a rib, according to Gregg Miliote, spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.
Miliote said the attacks on little Jayla Rosa occurred “over various stages” of time. He said the DA’s office initiated the arrest after having conducted “an extensive” 10-day investigation.
“The injuries were quite substantial. We’re talking about a very, very young and vulnerable child,” Miliote said on Tuesday.
He said that the baby’s mother, whose name has not yet been made public, brought her baby to Morton Hospital and Medical Center, where a call was made to the state’s Department of Children and Families, who in turn contacted the DA’s office.
Miliote would not say when the baby was brought to the hospital, or whether some or all of the attacks occurred within the Riverside Apartments subsidized housing complex.
Miliote did confirm that Rosa is the baby’s biological father. Both the baby and her 4-year-old brother have since been placed under DCS care and custody, he said. A spokeswoman at Morton Hospital would not comment on the girl having possibly been a patient there.
No charges so far have been lodged against the mother, but Rosa could face additional charges, said Miliote, who added that each count of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury resulting carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison.
No one answered the door at 10 Paul Bunker Drive Tuesday afternoon, where a dog could be heard barking inside after the doorbell was rung. Neighbors, meanwhile, were surprised and repulsed to hear of the alleged child abuse.
“I’m surprised. It’s really scary,” said Aurea Plaza, 61. Plaza, a Mulcahey Middle School teacher’s aide, said that in the 14 years that she and her family have lived on Paul Bunker Drive she cannot recall any similar incidents taking place there. Amanda Manning, 22, said it’s been less than a year that she’s lived in an apartment across the street from where Rosa was arrested Monday. She said that she never noticed any obvious signs that a baby had been abused.
“They’ve always been quiet,” she said of the couple. The last time she said she laid eyes on Jayla Rosa was two weeks ago when the baby, while sitting in a children’s car seat, was carried inside the house by her mother.
Manning said that she never got to know the parents and was never able to observe signs of physical abuse. She also said that this past Saturday a car in which Rosa was a passenger pulled into the parking lot, followed shortly thereafter by a Taunton police car.
“He flew in,” she said of the police cruiser.
While the cop waited outside, Rosa was allowed to enter the apartment and retrieve belongings, including a suitcase, she said. It wasn’t long before the children’s mother also pulled up in a car.
Rosa and the baby’s mother left separately, which Manning said would seem to suggest that police were enforcing a restraining order.
“You’d think that you would hear the poor thing screaming or something,” Manning’s father, John Gray, 52, said. “Ain’t that a shame,” he said, shaking his head.
Rosa has no prior charges as an adult on file either at the Taunton or Brockton district courts, officials told the Taunton Daily Gazette. Rosa is due back in Taunton District Court for a bail review hearing on Aug. 19.