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Last updated on Monday, July 27, 2015
(WASHINGTON) - A Washington couple is facing 20 counts of battery and neglect in connection with injuries discovered on their 5-week-old child.
28-year-old Candis Freeburn and 19-year-old Matthew Palmer-Coy are each charged with 10 counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury and 10 counts of battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person under 14 years of age.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the Washington City Police was contacted by a representative of Daviess County Department of Child Services on July 16. The representative stated that the DCS had been notified by Daviess Community Hospital that they were treating a 37-day-old baby with a broken clavicle. Medical personnel and the DCS noticed additional injuries to the child.
The child was sent to Riley Children's Hospital for additional examination. Doctors then reported finding a brain bleed, skull fracture, clavicle fracture, multiple bruises and fissures of the penis, a fracture of the right forearm, fracture of the left forearm, fracture of the right femur and fibula, fracture of the left femur and fibula, fracture of the left hand, bruises to the arm, and a torn labial frenulum. The doctor submitting the medical report said the child had all of the characteristics of physical abuse and that was "the only possible cause for the constellation of injuries."
The couple claimed the baby had been having stomach trouble and that is why they took the baby to the hospital. When asked about the broken clavicle, they said they thought that had happened when the baby was born. They denied seeing any bruising on the child, but finally said the injuries could be the result of the baby being put in a bouncy seat.
The charges do not indicate whether one or both parents might have injured the child.
Freeburn and Palmer-Coy both appeared in Daviess Superior Court on Thursday for initial hearings. Preliminary pleas of not guilty were entered for each of them and bond was set at $500,000 each. Both have omnibus hearings set for September 29 and trial dates set for November 17.
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