Boston Child Brain Injury Blog

A horrific assault on an infant perpetrated by a Great Falls woman left an innocent little girl blind and brain damaged for life, and even though the woman was found guilty and sentenced to a 30-year prison term, the child will never fully recover from her assault and be able to see again.

The woman, Alicia Jo Hocter was accused of aggravated assault and criminal endangerment for the February 2009 beating of Seraphina Bernardi – her then boyfriend’s daughter.

According to prosecutors in the case, Hocter held the infant around the waist and swung her against the edge of a wooden crib two or three times, then tossed the child into the crib, left the room and closed the door.

How cruel is that? What kind of a person does something like that?

She left the child alone and injured until her boyfriend, the girl’s father came back home about an hour later. She didn’t even bother to call 911 – it was little Seraphina’s father who called 911.

The little girl suffered permanent brain damage and blindness as a direct cause from her beating and physical abuse. Hocter received the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole for her crime against a defenseless child, and perhaps realizing the terrible damage her actions have cause, she apologized and said she believed she deserved punishment.

Seraphina’s mother, Kendra Bernardi, told the judge that her daughter is now serving a life sentence of blindness because of the injuries that Hocter caused. She said that even though Hocter got the verdict that she deserved, it will never be enough. “I’m glad that it’s over with, I’m glad that it’s closed, but it’s never going to be over for us. This is just another thing in our life, another thing that we have to deal with. Hopefully now we’ll have some closure,” she said.

We fully simpathize with little Seraphina and her parents, and we have her in our hearts and prayers.

You can find the news articles related to this sad story here: BillingsGazette.com, KRTV.com.

With the temperatures soaring these last few weeks, it is unthinkable to spend more than 10 minutes in a parked hot car. We wouldn’t do it ourselves, or even dream of inflicting such torture on our pets, let alone our children, so it’s pretty hard to imagine what kind of a parent would do something like that not only to one child, but two.

However, life is unpredictable, so we shouldn’t be so surprised to find that a parent did such a thing, not too long ago (on June 19th to be more precise).

The parent in question, Alison Novinc Matthews, 26, was arrested on the weekend of June 19-20th for leaving her two small girls, ages 2 and 4 alone in a hot car while she went shopping in a Target store in Gastonia, NC. During her shopping trip, the little girls were heard screaming and crying in the car. They were left alone around 2pm on a day that boasted temperatures of 95 degrees Fahrenheit, causing concern in other shoppers who wondered why would any parent do something so inconsiderate.

It was a shopper who reported the case to the police. While waiting for help to arrive, she somehow talked to older girl into unlocking the door. She then put both children in her air-conditioned car to cool off while waiting for their mother to return or for police to arrive. Paramedics later checked the children for symptoms of heat exposure, while their mother was still missing. Store workers were asked to search for her, and when she finally appeared, she did not understand what all the fuss was about.

According to her, she was in the store for 10 minutes, and she did not take the children with her because they were asleep. Target store security tapes showed that Matthews was actually 30 minutes in the store.

Police arrested Matthews and took her to Gaston County Jail. She is charged with misdemeanor child abuse, and was freed on a $3,000 bond.

NewsChannel 36 reported that they checked the temperature in the parking lot the next day and measured 97 degrees outside, and 108 degrees in a closed car with windows slightly open. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a body temperature of 108 degrees is lethal to a child, especially if it’s a smaller child whose small body mass makes them more susceptible to heat illnesses.

So far 15 children have died in hot cars in 2010, a researcher at San Francisco State University reported. There were 443 reported deaths from hot cars from 1998 to 2009, the SFSU Dept. of Geosciences website said. Adjunct Professor of Meteorology Jan Null analyzing these deaths found that 51% of the children who died were “forgotten” by a caregiver, while another 30% had been playing in an unattended vehicle. About 18% of the children were intentionally left in the cars by their parents.

Can you believe so many parents can be irresponsible when it comes to their children’s safety and well-being?

We sincerely hope the two little girls are doing better now, and that their mother will think twice before leaving her daughters alone in the car again.

Abigail Young, a Houston woman whose 4-year-old girl suffered death from 80 bruises, a severed pancreas and a fractured skull in the hands of her boyfriend, is now facing prosecution for failure to protect her child.

Her boyfriend is charged in the little girl’s death and faces trial on aggravated sexual assault.

Due to their physical and mental immaturity, children are particularly susceptible to injuries arising from accidents and abuse. According to recent data compiled by the Federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an estimated 794,000 children are victims of child abuse each year.

ABC News reported that if a child is harmed by one parent, the other parent is found to be a victim. According to their legal expert, “The mother has an obligation to protect the child, but because of her psychological helplessness,” prosecutors generally don’t file charges in such a case.

This case is different.

Emma’s mother tried to hide the fact that her boyfriend was the one responsible for her death. Young told investigators that her daughter hurt herself when she tumbled from a toilet seat.

If convicted of injury to a child by omission, Young faces up to life in prison. She has two other daughters with a former husband who are under his care.

The full story can be found here.