Young father accused of harming infant son sent for psych exam
A Fredericton man was supposed to stand trial this week, but instead has been sent for an assessment to determine fitness to stand trial
A 21-year-old Fredericton man accused of breaking his infant son’s legs three years ago has been remanded to a secure psychiatric facility to see if he’s fit to stand trial.
The defendant is accused of committing an aggravated assault on his infant son between July 31 and Aug. 10, 2020, by wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endangering the life of the child.
There’s a court-ordered publication ban in place protecting the boy’s identity, so the Fredericton Independent isn’t naming the defendant so as to respect that order.
Furthermore, the provincial Family Services Act protects the identities of children taken from parents by child protection workers, which occurred in this case as well.
The defendant’s Court of King’s Bench trial - before a judge alone, without a jury - was scheduled to begin Monday, but the accused was a no-show for court.
Defence lawyer Edward Derrah said his client emailed him at 6:17 a.m. that morning advising him he and his new girlfriend were both at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital.
Derrah said the email indicated the defendant had a lung infection as a result of COVID-19 and required antibiotics.
The defence lawyer said he’d been able to reach the defendant after that initial contact.
Crown prosecutor Nina Johnsen asked Justice Thomas Christie to issue a warrant for the defendant’s arrest.
“I have concerns,” she said, noting if the defendant was admitted to hospital, it would derail the scheduled seven-day trial.
If he wasn’t, the prosecutor said, the trial could still get underway Monday.
Derrah suggested Monday morning the court just adjourn until the afternoon to see if he could get an update on his client’s status.
But Christie decided it would be best to adjourn to Tuesday.
He did issue the requested warrant, but he held it on the court file until Derrah could determine his client’s status and location.
Defendant lacked excuse, awareness of the process
When court reconvened Tuesday morning, the defendant was present. Court heard he had been discharged from the hospital mid-morning Monday but never came to court despite knowing his trial was set to begin.
Christie said the accused lacked a substantive reason for failing to attend for his trial.
Of greater concern, the judge said, was the defendant’s demeanour in court Tuesday morning.
At the outset of any superior court trial, the indictment (namely, the charges against an accused) is read aloud, and the defendant is asked to enter a plea.
Christie said the defendant’s answer to the question of his plea - guilty or not guilty - was unclear, as he mumbled and seemed unaware of what might happen next.
“The answer, such as it was, appeared to the court to be without full understanding of the nature of the consequences of the answer he was about to give,” the judge said.
He said if he allowed the case to proceed to trial this week, the accused’s fitness to stand trial would loom over the entire proceeding, threatening its validity.
With the agreement of the prosecution and defence, Christie ordered that the defendant undergo a psychiatric assessment to determine his fitness to stand trial.
He remanded the 21-year-old to the Restigouche Hospital Centre, a secure psychiatric facility in Campbellton, where the examination would be done.
The judge said the assessment is to last no more than 30 days, after which the defendant could be released on his existing conditions, which include attending court when required.
Christie set the case over to April 3 for a fitness hearing and potentially to reschedule the trial.
‘Both femurs were broken’
Though no testimony was heard this week, some details about the investigation emerged at a proceeding in provincial court in December 2020.
During a hearing in which the defendant was seeking a change of conditions to allow him to see his infant son, court heard the baby’s maternal grandparents were concerned about the two-month-old baby’s health, as they noticed the boy's legs were swollen.
They took the baby to the Chalmers hospital, prosecutor Marc-André Desjardins said in late 2020, and a doctor noticed the child’s legs were clicking.
"Both femurs were broken,” he told court. “They appeared to be snapped, not cracked."
Medical scans revealed previous fractures of the ribs and legs that a pediatrician said was consistent with shaking, court heard.
The doctor also noted the baby's right eye was swollen, Desjardins said, and the medical opinion was that it would have taken significant force to injure the child so significantly.
The hospital notified social workers, who in turn contacted the police, which ultimately led to the aggravated assault charge.
Family members were interviewed, court heard, and the defendant gave a warned statement to police as well.
None of those allegations has been proven in court as yet.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.