Saginaw 1st Degree Child Abuse

March 4, 2015 Abuse and Neglect Attorney

The preliminary hearing for Steven A. Torres and his wife, Erica Jackson-Torres, the Saginaw couple facing charges of 1st degree child abuse, took place just last month in the Saginaw County District Court. But this case took like it may take a while to untangle, as there is a good deal of “he said, she said” taking place, with the different individuals involved all claiming that the child’s injuries were caused by someone else.

 
According to court documents, the 2-year-old boy’s mother, Crystal Williams, dropped her son off at the Torres’ home to be looked after while she was moving to a new home. When she picked him up several days later, the boy had bruises all over his body. Disturbed, she took him to a local hospital where he was examined and discovered to have a number of other injuries as well.

 
Dr. Haitham Salman, a pediatrician testifying in the case, claims that the boy had fractures of both his ulna and radius bones near the wrist, what appeared to be ligature marks on his neck, possible cigarette burns near his lip and in his ear, and bruises all over his body.

 
Williams apparently confronted Erica Jackson-Torres when she picked up her son, and again later when she discovered the full extent of her son’s injuries at home. The woman apparently claimed that she knew nothing of the injuries and that the boy woke up like that from his nap.

 
But this is where it gets complicated…

 
Jackson-Torres later admitted that she may have been responsible for the wrist fractures when she picked up the toddler by his hand, throwing him into a bedroom. But she claims to know nothing about the bruises, burns, and possible strangulation marks.

 
Steven Torres, however, claims to have nothing to do with any of the injuries. He did admit in court to the fact that he sometimes disciplines his children with a belt, which according to the doctors testimony, would explain certain bruises on the child’s body. But Torres says he had nothing to do with any of the child’s injuries, going so far as to say that he had not been present for much of the time that the boy was in his house due to his work schedule.

 
Both Torres and his wife are claiming that the boy was delivered into their care with all of the injuries he went home with, but they chose not to involve CPS at the time. Williams, however, is saying that her child was in perfect health at the time she dropped him off at the Torres house and he received all of his injuries there.

 
Due to Jackson-Torres’ admission that she may have caused the wrist fractures, District Judge Kyle Higgs Tarrant ruled that there was sufficient probable cause to bind her over for trial. However, the judge chose to delay her ruling on Torres due to the fact that only circumstantial evidence existed to tie him to the child’s injuries.