Mom's diligence leads to assault charge

Jan. 16, 2007

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER -A young mother's persistence in getting a correct diagnosis for her baby's injuries resulted in assault charges filed against the baby's father.

Justin Pflugh, 20, was charged with two counts of first-degree assault, second-degree assault and two counts of third-degree assault on Dec. 16.

The baby's mother, still in high school, noticed lumps on her baby's ribs in November, according to Kelly Swihart, a Wasilla police officer with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation's Child Abuse Unit. The mother first took the baby, who was born in late May, to Wasilla Medical Clinic, Swihart said.

&#8220The people there didn't think anything was wrong,” Swihart said. &#8220She took him for a second opinion.”

At Mat-Su Regional Medical Center on Nov. 10, doctors found the baby had two sets of broken ribs, and reported the injuries to the Office of Children's Services. Swihart met with a case worker from OCS at the hospital, and spoke with Dr. Lisa Harrison, according to the police report.

Harrison told Swihart that one set of fractures were three to four weeks old, and the second set of fractured ribs were about one to two weeks old, the report said.

However, a radiologist examined the X-rays and determined only three ribs were fractured and confirmed the doctor's time frame for injuries, the report said. All the broken ribs were on the left side of the baby's body, two toward the front and one in the back, the report said.

At first, neither parent could explain the injuries, and suggested the baby could have been hurt at the child-care facility they used, the report said.

During his investigation of broken ribs in the 5-month-old baby, Kelly Swihart talked to Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson about how a child might receive those injuries. At that age, the ribs are still soft, are not fully developed and have a flexible quality, Swihart wrote in his report. Baldwin-Johnson said it would take &#8220a significant amount of force to break a baby's rib bones,” the report said. The type of injures the baby had were more normally caused by &#8220falls from height onto something hard or bad car crashes,” Baldwin-Johnson told Swihart.

There are several reasons to be concerned about broken ribs in a child, Baldwin-Johnson told Swihart. The lungs could be bruised, or punctured, which could cause a baby to suffocate. Broken ribs also could bruise or cut other internal organs, such as the heart or liver. The pain from the fractures can prevent a child from taking deep breaths, which might lead to pneumonia.

&#8220There is no way a person could use the amount of force needed to cause these injuries without knowing a substantial amount of force was used,” she said in Swihart's report.

On Nov. 17, Pflugh agreed to take a polygraph test, and the baby's mother took a polygraph test on Dec. 3. The mother's test showed no deception, but Pflugh's results indicated otherwise, the report said.

On Dec. 7, Pflugh admitted he injured the baby, but said it was an accident, the report said. He squeezed the baby too hard once when he lifted the baby into a sitting position, and another time he had to grab the baby to keep him from falling, the report said.

Swihart noticed Pflugh's right hand was swollen and deformed from injuries. Pflugh told Swihart he broke his right hand three times, once when he punched a parking meter, and twice more when he hit something because he was angry, the report said. Pflugh said he had problems with anger management, but &#8220he takes his frustration on his own body,” the report said.

On Dec. 10, Swihart listened to a voice mail message Pflugh left on the mother's cell phone.

&#8220I understand I hurt my kid and I f——- regret it,” Pflugh's message said, according to the report.

Pflugh was released on a $15,000 bond the same day charges were filed.

Swihart said the medical folks looked very hard, and found no other injuries on the baby, and he credited the mother's determination to find out what was wrong with her baby.

&#8220She's pretty squared away,” Swihart said.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@ frontiersman.com.