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Last updated on Thursday, April 17, 2014
(SALEM) - 27-year old Nicole Mann of Salem, who was arrested and charged with failure to report child abuse, was sentenced to the maximum 180 days in jail for the B misdemeanor charge.
Mann pled guilty to the crime.
According to the Leader Democrate, Judge Larry Medlock suspended 164 days of the sentence. Mann has served 16 days and will remain on probation for 164 days. Washington County Prosecutor Dustin Houchin says this is a landmark case, because it is the first time in the county's history that a person has been convicted for not reported child abuse.
According to police Mann received texts messages from her ex-husband 30-year-old Kilijah Mann about the about of his girlfriend's toddler son. The graphic messages included "I know I smacked him in the head and it knocked him out." Houchin says Mann knew the abuse was happening and did nothing.
Houchin hopes this case shines some light on the problem of child abuse. Indiana law requires anyone who witnesses evidence of suspected child abuse to report it to authorities so they may look into it and determine if legal action is warranted. It's the law and nobody is exempt.
Two other adults were charged in the case Kilijah Mann, who faces two Class B felonies for battery causing serious bodily injury to a child under age 14 and neglect of a dependant and the toddler's mother 27-year-old Rose McNeely, whom police say failed to seek medical care for her injured son. She has entered a blind plea agreement to a Class C felony charge for neglect of a dependent and is awaiting sentencing.
A medical examiner at Kosair Children's Hospital reported the toddler had extensive bruising, abrasions, contusions and scratches over much of his body. His eyes were also so swollen he could not see out of them.
Salem police began an investigation after the boy's father was told by a friend that his son had numerous bruises and his eyes were swollen shut.
After police interviewed the father and the father's friend, officers made a welfare check on the toddler who was living on Reid Avenue.
McNeely told police that her son had not been beaten and the bite mark found on the boy was done by another child. She says the bruises were suffered during a tickling incident with Mann. She then told police that the child's swollen eyes were the result of him rubbing pepper in his eyes.
Carol Mann, who lives with her ex-husband and helps with the child's care, told police that she had left the home and when she returned the toddler's eyes were swollen shut. The swelling was so bad that she had to lead the boy around because he could not see. She told police she washed the child's eyes out with Johnson & Johnson Baby Bath, but did not take the child to the hospital for treatment.
But according to a physician at Kosair Children's Hospital, who examined the child, that amounts to medical neglect.
The witness who alerted the boy's father about the abuse told police he told McNeely to take the child to the hospital, but she refused saying she did not want Child Protective Services to get involved.
CPS was notified by police and the toddler was taken to St. Vincent Salem Hospital and then transferred to Kosair. Where doctors found extensive bruising, abrasions, contusions and scratched over much of the boy's body. When McNeely was questioned about the other bruises she told doctors she didn't know where they had come from.
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