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Whisper

#byefelicia
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Keith Firman​
[....]
attorney for
[...]
man charged with severely burning his former girlfriend's 2-year-old son said Wednesday the burns may have been due to an overheated water boiler
[...]
prosecutor said the boy's injuries were no accident.
Keith Henry Firman, 25, was charged in October after nearly a yearlong investigation
[...]
Firman gave up his right to a preliminary hearing on charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Michele Kluk of the state attorney general's office said she was asked to take over the prosecution because of a potential conflict of interest:
[....]
Kluk said there is no plea deal in the case and that Firman faces a minimum four years in prison for the most serious charge
[....]
Firman's attorney, Tyree Blair Sr., said after the hearing that the boy's injuries were caused when Firman was giving the boy a shower
[....]
Blair said that apartment is in the same building as a dry-cleaning business that controls the temperature of the water boiler.

"We believe the burns were caused by the shower itself,
[...]
Kluk said photos of the boy's second- and third-degree burns clearly show they were not accidentally
[....]
"Even if the water was really boiling hot, it wouldn't have caused these kind of injuries by mistake,"
[....]
A doctor who reviewed the medical records and photos told
[...]
the boy's injuries were consistent with being immersed in hot water.
[....]
boy, now 3, is undergoing therapy and still has some scarring from the burns.

"Other than that, he is surprisingly on his way
[....]
District Judge Antonia Grifo's courtroom was packed
[...]
with family and friends of both Firman and the victim.

According to court records:
[....]
although the boy was injured Oct. 24, he wasn't treated
[....]
until five days later. The boy had burns to his lower legs and bottom consistent with being immersed in hot liquid.
[....]
boy's mother, Lauren Parkinson, told
[...]
she was not home when the boy was burned, but had left her son in care of Firman while she was at work and school.

In an interview with police
[...]
Firman said he put the boy in the shower after he had soiled his diaper.
[....]
said the boy began "screaming loudly" and he immediately took him out of the shower and saw the burns.
[...]
Firman later changed his account of what had happened and then said he had left the boy in the shower for about an hour and when he returned, the boy was "screaming like a banshee" from the hot water.

Firman remains in prison under $25,000 bail.
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-easton-toddler-burned-hearing-20141217-story.html
 
said he had left the boy in the shower for about an hour

He left a 2 year in a hot shower for about an hour? Oh no he dint!, trying to explain why he had such bad burns saying he left him for an hour, the lying liar!
 
Sure a two year old is just going to hang out in a shower for two hours unsupervised.
 
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damn, he had one hell of a water heater. i know mine looses heat after about 25-30 min.
 
It never ceases to amaze me that these idiots truly believe that they're gonna get one over on the Doctors, Investigators, Jury, Judge, etc, who have heard the same story, different bathtub tales their entire careers.
 
although the boy was injured Oct. 24, he wasn't treated
[....]
until five days later.


boy's mother, Lauren Parkinson, told
[...]
she was not home when the boy was burned, but had left her son in care of Firman while she was at work and school.
For 5 days straight? She never came home and checked in on her son?

Yes, I have a huge problem with that.
 
So even if she wasn't home when it happened.... she came home eventually didn't she? And did nothing??? Poor little baby.
 
An Easton man accused of severely scalding his girlfriend's 2-year-old son while baby-sitting was acquitted Wednesday of assault charges, after a trial in which his defense attorney insisted the boy's injuries were an accident.

Keith H. Firman was found not guilty of aggravated and simple assault after 41/2 hours of jury deliberations, though the panel deadlocked on less serious charges of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.

Firman's lawyer, Tyree Blair, insisted it was merely an accident in a shower with a too-hot water heater. He said the injuries were attributable to two unfortunate factors: a broken shower door that fell and penned the toddler as the water hit him, and an apartment above a dry-cleaning company that runs the boilers hot.

Blair, who was trying his first case as a lawyer, smiled broadly and hugged his client after the verdict was delivered. He said he will be petitioning to have the 25-year-old Firman, who has been jailed since October, released from prison.

"I am by far the happiest attorney in the county," said Blair, who thanked the jury "for just listening to the evidence."

Kluk said that she was "shocked" by the verdict. In court, President Judge Stephen Baratta said it "surprised me a little bit."

Firman told police that he had put the boy in the shower after he soiled himself and no diapers were available. Blair said Firman had gone onto the porch of the March Street apartment when he heard a "bang" and screaming. Rushing in, Firman found the bathroom full of steam and the toddler scalded, Blair said.

But while Firman said the boy was burned from the shower's spray, state Deputy Attorney General Michele Kluk charged that details of his story changed during a nearly two-hour interrogation by police, and none of them meshed with the medical evidence.

On Tuesday, Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen of the Lehigh Valley Health Network testified that if the boy had been scalded while showering, as Firman claimed, there would have been splash marks on his body and burns to his feet.

Instead, the child's injuries were contained to a single location, the area of his buttocks, suggesting he was dunked bottom-first into scalding water, said Esernio-Jenssen, who specializes in child-abuse pediatrics.

Given the deadlock on the endangerment charges, Kluk could retry Firman on those allegations, Baratta noted. Kluk said afterward that she needed to discuss that possibility with her supervisors.

Blair said he expects prosecutors won't pursue a retrial of the lesser charges, considering the amount of time Firman has already spent incarcerated due to lack of bail. Even if Firman was convicted of the misdemeanors at a second trial, Blair said, he would probably be facing only a time-served sentence.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/...-two-year-old-boy-verdict-20150408-story.html

At trial this month, an Easton man charged with severely scalding a 2-year-old boy he was baby-sitting insisted that it was only an accident caused by too-hot water in a shower.

Keith H. Firman's story was enough for him to win an acquittal from a Northampton County jury on assault charges. But to the judge who presided over the case, it was a "frankly laughable" account that couldn't have happened given the medical evidence.

"His story is a lie, given what the facts are," President Judge Stephen Baratta said Friday as the 25-year-old Firman stood in court before him.

Though Firman was found not guilty April 8 of aggravated and simple assault, the jury deadlocked on misdemeanor child endangerment charges. With state prosecutors planning to retry Firman on those allegations, his defense attorney, Tyree Blair, struck a deal: The defendant admitted to endangering the welfare of his ex-girlfriend's toddler in exchange for a sentence that spared him any further time in jail.

Firman, who spent more than six months in prison before his acquittal allowed him to be bailed out, received a time-served to 23-month sentence, followed by three years of probation. Baratta barred him from living or having unsupervised contact with children who are not his own.

The boy's mother, Lauren Parkinson, said her son bears emotional and physical scars that she fears will plague him throughout his life. Reading from a written statement Friday, Parkinson said her son is afraid of running water and needs to be routinely assured that she will keep him safe.

"Every day he relives this traumatic event over and over again," she said.

Firman said nothing in court before he was sentenced, even as Baratta called him "lucky" to have won his acquittal. Baratta said in reaching its verdict, the jury likely struggled with the question of whether Firman intentionally caused the burns, as prosecutors maintained.

"Quite frankly, as a father — and I saw those injuries — they were horrific," Baratta said.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/mc-easton-scalded-two-year-old-boy-20150424-story.html
 

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