A Kent father and mother entered not guilty pleas today, Aug. 11, in King County Superior Court for the charges of first-degree assault and second-degree criminal mistreatment of their 5-week-old son.
King County Prosecutors allege the couple abused the boy and the two are being held in the jail at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
The father, Christopher C. Robinson, 20, was charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment and the mother, Tarae L. Demry, 19, with first-degree assault and second-degree criminal mistreatment.
Robinson is being held on $150,000 bail and $250,000 for Demry.
The case setting is scheduled for Aug. 25,
Both were booked July 29 into the county jail at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
Kent Police arrested the couple July 26 at their Kent apartment and initially booked them into the city jail.
“The injuries sustained by the victim are consistent with injuries caused by rotational forces to the brain that are often associated with shaking,” wrote senior deputy prosecutor Charles Sergis in the charging papers filed July 29. “These forces could not be produced by the child himself, given his extremely young age of five weeks. The admissions made by defendant Demry about shaking the victim are the most likely cause of the victim’s brain injuries.”
The incident came to light when Kent Police were called July 16 by a Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital social worker about suspected child abuse, according to charging papers. The baby was brought by the mother to the Tacoma hospital in critical condition, unresponsive and seriously malnourished.
The baby weighed less than his birth weight and a CT scan “revealed new and old subdural hemorrhaging in the pattern, which suggests a pattern of abuse,” according to court papers. Hospital staff reported that the baby was so thin they couldn’t even “pinch a bit of fat on the boy’s bottom.”
A nurse told detectives that the baby was “very close to dying.” Hospital staff said that the baby will have permanent brain damage, although the amount and severity is unknown at this time.
Demry told detectives that “some days I accidently dropped him,” and added, “I never shook him. I did one time. I didn’t shook him hard.”
A relative of Demry tod police he urged her to take the baby to the hospital after he held him and the baby would “go limp.”
Demry also admitted she did not feed her son for two days because she ran out of formula and instead gave the boy water.
Prosecutors allege Robinson failed to properly care for his son “by not feeding him for at least two days and not taking him to a doctor when any reasonable person would know that the victim was in dire need of medical care. These actions caused a risk of death to the victim.”
The mother told detectives she lived with Robinson at his parents’ house the first two weeks after giving birth and then she and the baby moved into the home of a relative of Demry.
Robinson told detectives he would see his child about three days per week for a few hours each day after Demry and the child moved into her relative’s house. He said he noticed several times that his baby’s eyes would roll back and his mouth would be wide open as he slept. He said that seemed very concerning but Demry told him a nurse told her it was normal.
Robinson also told police he noticed one day the baby didn’t eat or cry and had dried lips and seemed dehydrated. But he said he didn’t call 911 or take the baby to the hospital because “life is hard” and the baby had a doctor’s appointment coming up.
Child Protective Services took the child into custody and his condition has stabilized, said Kent Police spokesman Pat Lowery.
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