Police in Lawrence Park Township were told by a man that a 3-month-old boy who had been taken to the hospital with a head injury in late August had dropped from his arms and hit the floor.
A criminal complaint made last week says that a doctor at a Pittsburgh hospital and the child’s medical records showed injuries that were worse than what the child would have gotten by accident.
Curtis R. Finn, the child’s 32-year-old father, was arraigned in court on November 5 on felony charges of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children and misdemeanor charges of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. He is due back in court on November 27 for his preliminary hearing.
According to court records, Finn was freed on an unsecured bond after being arraigned. It was impossible to get him to say anything.
The criminal charge against Finn says that the Erie County Office of Children and Youth called Lawrence Park police on August 23 to say that a child with a serious injury was at UPMC Hamot. That’s how the police learned about the injuries to the 3-month-old. The child had to have emergency surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the investigating officer wrote in the statement of probable cause for the complaint.
Later, a Lawrence Park cop and an OCY official went to Finn’s home on Priestly Avenue to talk to him. Finn told them that he had lost control of the child because the child pushed against his chest, threw his head back, and kicked his feet up. Police wrote in the statement that Finn said the child fell backward and hit his head on the floor.
The police said they looked at medical information from Children’s Hospital and UPMC Hamot. According to a doctor’s written report on the child’s injuries, the boy had a traumatic brain injury, subdural bleeding, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, all of which needed neurosurgery. The investigating officer wrote in the statement that the boy also had a skull fracture that went from one side of his head to the other.
According to the statement, the doctor also noticed that there was blood around the child’s spinal cord. This kind of injury happens when the spinal cord is severely flexed or bent.
The doctor said there was no history of an accident that could have caused the brain damage and that the child’s injuries were consistent with being hurt intentionally, the investigating officer wrote in the statement.
Source: 3-month-old boy suffers head injuries; Lawrence Park man charged
