Kimberix
Trusted Member
MUNCY -- Breanna Diane Long broke into tears as she testified about the physical abuse her then live-in boyfriend inflicted on her toddler son.
Long, 19, became emotional as she described Brett A. Fields last spring throwing her then 18-month-old son across a room and hitting him with a closed fist and open hand multiple times.
Fields, 24, would hit him in his crib and pick him by the arm pits when he was angry, especially when he was playing video games and the baby cried, she said.
"He hit him pretty hard," she said, adding he would say "you're not my son anyway." He started hitting him when he was 8 to 9 months old, she said.
Long testified Friday at Fields' preliminary hearing along with other witnesses who described the way Fields treated the boy, who is not his son, and two other children he had with Long.
Fields would not feed, bathe or change the young children and ignored the child that was not his son, she said.
"He didn't like the smell of it so he didn't do it," she responded when asked if Fields ever changed the children's diapers.
District Judge John E. Kemp ordered Fields, who was living in Lock Haven with Long when arrested, held for court on charges that include aggravated assault.
He dismissed for lack of evidence a count of furnishing alcohol to a minor.
Long on March 3 waived her hearing on charges of endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering and remains jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Among the prosecution witnesses were three women with whom Fields, Long and the three children stayed for periods of time in 2016.
Jordan Follmer testified Fields on one occasion threw the boy across a room causing him to hit her knee while she was sitting in a chair.
She saw bruises on the one boy's face and the children were left for hours in in dirty diapers, said said.
Ashley Cagle, with whom the couple and their children stayed for nearly two months, testified "they really didn't care much for them."
She and her husband took responsibility to bathe and change them, she said.
When Fields and Long got jobs with a carnival they left the children with the Eagles for several weeks, she said.
Clarissa Guthrie testified when she told the two to leave her Trout Run home after she caught Long drinking alcohol, Fields threatened to shoot up the place. She called police, she said.
Lycoming County Assistant District Attorney Scott J. Werner Jr. introduced a letter written by Dr. Paul Bellino at Geisinger's Janet Weis Children's Hospital that stated the boy's underdevelopment could be attributed to two brain injuries.
An examination in May 2016 revealed the boy also had two healing fractures on his right arm, the letter also stated.
It is Bellino's opinion, the boy's vomiting issues came from head trauma and most likely he will have neurological issues the rest of his life, the charges state.
Besides the aggravated assault counts Fields is headed for trial on charges of simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person and harassment. He has been unable to post $500,000 bail.
The two boys the couple had and Long's son have been adopted by a family unrelated to them.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/03/mom_breaks_down_as_she_testifi.html