Originally charged with two counts of child abuse and neglect causing serious injury, an Oak Hill woman has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of neglect of children. The victims were her 3-week-old, twin daughters and, to protect their identities, The Connection is not revealing the name of their mother.

In a July 20 affidavit for a search warrant, Fairfax County Police Det. Nickolas Boffi, of the Child Investigation Unit of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, explained the case against her. He sought the warrant to obtain forensic evidence from her person.

He wrote that, on Sept. 30, 2008, the then-20-year-old mother brought her 22-day-old daughter to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital for treatment of a possible injury to her arm. According to the detective, the infant’s grandmother had noticed that she wasn’t moving her right arm and that it appeared to be swollen.

The hospital confirmed that the baby’s forearm had been fractured, and the mother couldn’t provide the hospital with an explanation for how it had happened. As a result, the treating physician contacted the county’s Child Protective Services and that agency followed up on the case.

Then on Oct. 7, 2008, the mother went to the hospital again — but this time, she not only brought that infant (called Victim 1 by Boffi), but her twin sister, as well, after the grandmother observed bruise marks on various parts of both babies’ bodies.

“The treating physician ordered a full, skeletal X-ray of both victims, and it was determined that both had multiple fractures to most of their extremities, multiple rib fractures and a possible skull fracture to Victim 1,” wrote Boffi. The doctor then ordered both infants taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital for treatment of their injuries.

There, on Oct. 8, 2008, the detective was present while Dr. William Hauta, recognized in Circuit Court as a child-abuse expert, performed a head-to-toe evaluation of the twins. Boffi wrote that Hauta confirmed that both had sustained “non-accidental trauma.”

That same day, Boffi obtained arrest warrants for the mother and she was formally charged after turning herself in at police headquarters in Fairfax. She appeared Nov. 18, 2008 in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, and the cases against her were certified to the grand jury — which indicted her on both charges.

After several continuances, she was scheduled for an Oct. 26 jury trial in Circuit Court but, instead, entered a plea there on Oct. 22. At that time, one of her charges was dropped and the other was amended to a lesser crime of neglect of children.

It’s still a felony but — unlike her initial charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison — this one is punishable by no more than five years behind bars. Judge Stanley Klein set sentencing for Jan. 29, 2010.