GREENFIELD — A Greenfield man will serve three years on probation after admitting he neglected his girlfriend’s young son, a judge ordered Wednesday.
Zachary Young, 24, of Greenfield, was sentenced this week after accepting a plea agreement from prosecutors that calls for him to spend three years on probation after pleading guilty to a Level 3 felony count of neglect of a dependent.
But should Young violate his probation, he could be sent to an Indiana Department of Correction prison for up to nine years, according to the deal.
Young was arrested last year amid allegations he hit a toddler he helped care for hard enough to leave a cut on the boy’s head and a large mark on the boy’s face, according to charging documents.
Young told his girlfriend the boy had fallen and hit his head on a coffee table at their home, resulting in a gash and some redness, court documents state.
But doctors who examined the child thought the redness looked like a handprint, leading them to believe the mark was caused intentionally, court documents state.
Young was originally charged with one Level 3 felony count of neglect of a dependent and one Level 3 felony count of domestic battery on a child, records show.
Prosecutors dropped the domestic battery allegation in exchange for Young’s guilty plea to neglect, and — at the request of the victim’s mother — asked the judge to lift a no-contact order that’s been in place since the case was filed in October, records show.
Hancock County Superior Court 1 Judge Terry Snow called the victim’s mother to testify Wednesday during Young’s sentencing hearing.
She told him the protective order has kept her from living with Young since the charges were filed. She and her child have been staying with friends and family while the case is pending, she said.
Lifting the order would lessen this hardship, she said.
Snow seemed skeptical at first of removing the protective order, but ultimately agreed after hearing the woman’s story.
“You believe Mr. Young is not a danger to your child?” Snow asked the woman, adding, “Obviously he was” before making his final decision.
The woman told Snow she does not believe Young is dangerous.
It was the doctor’s at a local hospital who brought the child’s injuries to investigators’ attention, records show.
The child’s mother told police she’d left the child home alone with Young while she went to work. A few hours into her shift, Young contacted her to say the child had fallen and hit his head on a coffee table, and he texted her a photo of a gash on the boy’s head, court documents state.
The woman said she rushed home to see if the child was OK, and she decided to take him to the emergency room, court documents state.
Once she arrived at the hospital, she also noticed redness on the boy’s face that spread along the left side of the child’s face and back to his inner ear, court documents state. In addition to the cut on the boy’s head, there was also a scratch and a bump on his forehead, court documents state.
Doctors at the hospital immediately contacted police because they were concerned the child had been abused, court documents state. When officers and representatives from the Indiana Department of Child Services arrived, the boy told them “‘daddy’ gave him his boo-boos,” court documents state.
Young is not the boy’s biological father, but the child does refer to Young as his “daddy,” officials said.
The first year of Young’s probation sentence will be spent on home detention, according to court documents. As part of his probation, Young most undergo drug tests and complete anger management classes, records show.