A Centreville man is facing as much as 10 years in prison after being arrested and charged with child abuse. He is 23 and lives in London Towne.
Fairfax County police say the alleged victim is his 2-month-old daughter, and Centre View is not revealing the man's name or exact address to protect the identity of the child.
Det. Constance T. Bates, of the police department's Major Crimes Division, detailed the case against him in a May 22 affidavit for a search warrant to seek evidence in his townhouse. The case first came to police attention on May 16.
On that date, Bates received information that a 2-month old baby had been admitted to Inova Fairfax Hospital for retinal hemorrhaging — bleeding from the blood vessels in the back of the eyeball — which was causing seizures. "The baby also had bruising to the left cheek and forehead, as well as fractured ribs," wrote the detective.
She then spoke with the infant's parents and asked how the injuries happened. "The father told [me] that a baby monitor in [the child's] crib caused the bruise," wrote Bates. "He also stated that the fractured ribs occurred when he was bathing the baby and she slipped from his grasp."
Bates conveyed this information to Dr. Kent Hymel, medical director of Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children's Pediatric Forensic Assessment and Consultation Team. He then examined the infant. Afterward, Bates wrote that Hymel advised her that "the nature of the injuries [that] occurred [was] inconsistent with the circumstances the parents provided to [the detective]."
Police executed the search warrant May 22 and seized a monitor from the child's bassinet and a monitor from atop the refrigerator. Last Wednesday, May 28, police charged the father with one count of child abuse.
He was held without bond until Monday, when the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office took him to answer to a probation-violation charge stemming from a March 1999 offense in that jurisdiction. He's also scheduled for a June 30 court date in Fairfax County.