Dad JEFFREY LAMAR MITCHELL has pleaded no contest to child neglect (bashing a baby's skull is "neglect"?) and will be serving 30 months in prison. Oh, and he gets credit for time served. Notice that Mom is being charged as an accessory--EVEN THOUGH SHE WASN'T AT HOME. This is the tight double standard that moms are subjected to legally.
We moms are lectured again and again that we must "involve" fathers in infant care--and then we're the ones bashed by the legal system when these hot-headed, testosterone-fueled idiots beat the baby.
Few species have a history of father care--and ours isn't one of them.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/oct/24/fort-pierce-father-of-injured-infant-sentenced/
Fort Pierce father of injured infant sentenced to prison
By staff report
TCPalm
Posted October 24, 2011 at 4:44 p.m.
FORT PIERCE — The father of a 3-month-old infant treated in April for injuries including a skull fracture pleaded no contest Monday to child neglect and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Jeffrey Lamar Mitchell, 34, of the 2300 block of South 29th Street in Fort Pierce had been charged with aggravated child abuse causing great harm, a first-degree felony. As part of a plea deal, he pleaded to a second-degree felony and was given credit for the 194 days he's already served in jail by Circuit Judge Lawrence Mirman.
Following his release from prison, Mitchell is to serve two years of probation and have no contact with the victim in the case.
According to Fort Pierce Police Department reports, a friend of Mitchell's, Michael Warfle, 22, of Fort Pierce originally said he was watching the child when the infant fell from a bassinet onto the floor.
An official at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach told officers the infant "had a right side brain bleed, a left side skull fracture, a broken right clavicle and (an) old 12th rib fracture," adding that the injuries weren't consistent with a 2- to 3-foot fall.
When Warfle was arrested, he said he hadn't been watching the infant but agreed to cover for Mitchell, who was supposed to be caring for the child while the mother, Christina Cooper-Rivera, was away.
Warfle has been charged with aggravated child abuse and filing a false crime report. Cooper-Rivera, who was Mitchell's girlfriend at the time, is charged with accessory after the fact to child abuse. Both have status hearings Nov. 1.