The Bradford couple jailed for the alleged abuse of an infant are scheduled to be in district court next week.
Alana Dinch, 20, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing before District Judge Dom Cercone at 9 a.m. Wednesday, while Jonathan Burke, 25, is scheduled to appear in Central Court on Thursday.
The couple, both of 81 Rochester St., remain in McKean County Jail on $50,000 bail each. Dinch is represented by the McKean County Public Defender’s office, while Burke is represented by court-appointed attorney Christopher Martini.
The pair is accused of abusing a three-month-old baby over a period of two weeks.
According to Bradford City Police, the child, still hospitalized at Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., was in stable condition as of Wednesday, but the potential long-term effects of the abuse are not yet known.
The criminal complaints filed against the two alleged that a three-month-old girl was taken to Bradford Regional Medical Center Dec. 19, before being transferred to Children’s Hospital in Buffalo.
The infant had a V-shaped skull fracture on the left side of her head, hematomas to the scalp and face, swelling and hemorrhages over the right and left sides of her skull and a healing fracture to her ninth left rib. The bleeding on the brain was consistent with “shaken baby syndrome,” the criminal complaint stated. The skull fracture was consistent with blunt force trauma, “possibly caused by a pointed or sharp object.”
Police determined that Dinch had squeezed and shaken the infant. She told police she had thrown a chair at Burke, and it bounced off him and struck the infant in the side of the head, the complaint stated.
No one sought medical help for the child until several days after she was injured, the complaint alleged.
Dinch told police that Burke had said the baby’s head “looked really bad,” but neither of them sought treatment for several days, the complaint read.
Dinch is charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, first-degree felonies; three counts of aggravated assault of a child, second-degree felonies; three counts of simple assault, first-degree misdemeanor; and three counts of recklessly endangering another person, second-degree misdemeanors.
Burke is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a first-degree felony; and recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor.
