GREENFIELD — A 21-year-old Greenfield man has been charged with hurting a 2-month-old child whose arm was broken in December.
Joseph L. Jackson, Greenfield, was arrested Monday, May 24, and has been charged with a Level 3 felony count of domestic battery with serious bodily injury to someone younger than 14; and a Level 6 felony count of neglect of a dependent. The most serious charge carries a sentence of up to 16 years in prison.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department was asked Jan. 14 to look into a case concerning a 2-month-old boy who had suffered a broken right arm. The injury was discovered in late December after the boy’s mother took the child for treatment after concluding something was wrong with him.
According to the affidavit, which cited records from Riley Children’s Hospital, a radiologist determined the boy suffered from a lateral condyle fracture to the right arm, which is near the elbow. A nurse practitioner said the injury was caused by “significant force.”
The child’s mother was at work when the boy was injured, the affidavit said. When the boy’s mother returned home from work at 3 a.m. Dec. 29, she said, the infant woke up crying, and she noticed his arm didn’t seem “quite right,” but she didn’t see any obvious injury, the affidavit said. The next morning when she woke up she noticed the infant was fussy and obviously in pain and wasn’t moving his right arm like he normally would, so she took him for treatment, the affidavit said.
The woman told detectives that Jackson often gets frustrated with the child and doesn’t know what to do when the boy is crying, the affidavit said. Jackson initially denied knowledge of how the injury occurred but later admitted to hurting him.
Jackson was babysitting three children at the time and told officials the other two children were starting to get him frustrated. He grabbed the infant by his arm and yanked him out of the swing he had been sitting in, the affidavit said. Jackson told police that he “did it really hard.”
Jackson did not seek medical treatment for the child, but stated he “swaddled him” and put him to bed.
Jackson made his initial appearance in Hancock County Circuit Court via video on Tuesday, May 25, where Judge Scott Sirk set a $20,000 cash bond and appointed a public defender, Myron A. Rahn, Fortville.
Jackson was still listed as an inmate as of the Daily Reporter’s deadline and has a second court date set for a pretrial conference in late July.
