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Over a year ago, 10 week old Jason Midyette was brought into Boulder Community Hospital with 28 broken bones including a fractured skull. He died in March of 2006 from his injuries. An alert nurse contacted the police on suspicion that the baby had been abused. Five months later, the County Coroner's office finally ruled Jason's death a homicide due to closed brain case trauma. (The delay was in making sure that the baby did not have a brittle bone disorder.) The parents refused to talk to police from day one and brought in attorneys from the moment the police were notified of suspicious circumstances. A year later, they've (finally) been arrested and charged with felony child abuse resulting in death. That charge is a class 2 felony if perpetrated knowingly, 3 if by neglect or negligence. The penalty for a class 1 is a minimum of life in prison, a maximum of the death penalty. For a class 2, the minimum is 8 years / $5,000 fine; the maximum is 24 years / $1,000,000 fine; class 3 is 4 years / $3,000 fine mimimum to 12 years / $750,000 fine. Homicide, which is what the coroner declared, is a class 1. This case went to a grand jury. The senior Midyettes (the grandparents, not the parents) are very rich and influential, owning much of the downtown Boulder real estate.
Now compare this to two other infant child abuse cases in the area. Tanner Dowler was 9 weeks old in October of 2002 when his parents took him into the Community Medical Center, where he was found to have multiple broken bones and brain damage. His death was ruled a homicide within 48 hours. His parents were arrested within 24 hours and his mother convicted in less time than it took the Grand Jury to indict the Midyettes. (His father was convicted of child abuse resulting in death and sentenced 16 months after the baby's death.)
In another case, a legal immigrant nanny shook a baby (who survived); she did not receive any pre-charge legal assistance, and is now serving 10 years. She was arrested the day after the child was admitted to Children's Hospital.
Once the Dowlers were in custody, they never left it. The Midyettes quite casually posted more than $1M bail and are out and about, though under GPS surveillance.
If the Midyettes were not rich, if they did not have influential family connections, they would not be getting off as easily as they are. A child with 28 broken bones is clearly an abused child, and there would have been no questions. A child who gained as little weight as Jason did (he was 4 weeks premature, and weighed only 8 pounds at death and had only gained 3 ounces since being released from hospital at 3 weeks old) would be a cause for concern even if there were no broken bones. It's known that someone in the household smoked pot (pipes and ashes were found in a warranted search just after the baby died.) If the mother wasn't a lawyer, this would not have gone to grand jury. It would be finished, and there would be two people in prison. The baby had benzodiazepines (tranquilizers such as Xanax, Valium, Ativan, etc) in his system, which can be transmitted via breast milk. If they were poor, those factors would have them up for charges.
I'm not faulting Mary Lacy on this - as DA she's doing what she has to do, though rather than send this to a grand jury, she probably should have filed charges - the evidence is solid enough. What I am faulting is a system that allows the rich to play the game while poorer defendants are stuck with whatever they happen to get.
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