(Stillwater) — The parents of an injured 5-month-old Cushing baby, who had multiple fractures to her head and ribs, have been placed on five years’ probation for child neglect as part of a plea bargain approved by Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler Monday.
Don F. McGee Jr., 24, and Ellen Lavada Bravo, 36, who no longer live together but still reside in Cushing, must comply with all the orders in a juvenile individual service plan and all the recommendations in a background report compiled for the court.
Each must take parenting classes, have a mental health evaluation and follow all the recommendations, take anger management classes and perform 50 hours of community service within one year under the judge’s order Monday.
The baby’s parents, who both adamantly denied ever hurting their child, pleaded no contest to an amended charge of failing to provide appropriate supervision over the baby during a five-month period — with the result that she suffered a soft palate laceration, multiple fractures to both sides of the head and multiple broken ribs.
They were originally charged with leaving their baby “in the care of another,” when they “knew or reasonably should have known that the child would be placed at risk of abuse,” between Oct. 25, 2006, and March 29, 2007.
The baby had three skull fractures, five rib fractures, six bruises on her head and an inch-long cut in the back of the roof of her mouth when she was taken by her parents on March 29, 2007, to Children’s Hospital in Oklaoma City, pediatrician John Stuemky testified at a preliminary hearing two years ago.
Stuemky, professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine and medical director of the child protection team at Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, testified at the preliminay hearing that the child’s injuries were consistent with abuse.
No one was ever identified or charged with actually abusing the baby, who was placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services. She does not have neurological damage, according to court testimony.
In a background report compiled for the court, the baby’s father said, “When they said she had fractures, we lived with 11 other people at that time. We lived with my ex-girlfriend’s father, her sister and her children, my ex-girlfriend and her children and my brother-in-law.
“I was being charged, but I didn’t know who had hurt her. I only knew I hadn’t. It bothered me for the officer to call me a child abuser at the hospital and kick me out.”
The baby’s mother said, in a background report compiled for the court, that she did not commit the crime, but somewhere along the way she failed to protect her daughter.
“I woke up and looked in (the baby’s) mouth and saw a dark spot towards the back of her tonsil area. I rushed her to Cushing hospital and Dr. Dotson took a tongue depressor and looked in her mouth and we saw it was a cut.
“It required stitches and Dr. Dotson couldn’t do it there, so I took her to OU Children’s Medical Center and she had surgery that day. When we came out of surgery, a lady came out, and said she was from DHS and that there was a hold on (the baby.) After surgery, they did a full skeletal x-ray and found fracture on the side of her head and also rib fractures and she was taken into DHS that day.”
The baby’s mother, who said that she had never before been arrested, was given a deferred sentence — meaning that she will not have a criminal record if she successfully completes probation.
The baby’s father, who was already on probation for possessing marijuana in the presence of an 11-year-old boy in 2003, was given a suspended sentence — meaning that he has now been convicted of a felony, child neglect.
He has completed his anger management and parenting classes, according to court records.
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