STORY: "Iowa child care provider sentenced to 50 years after infant's brain injuries lead to death," by Reporter William Morris, published by The Sea Moines Register, on July 1, 2023. (William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register);
GIST: "A Cass County child care provider will spend up to 50 years in prison after being sentenced this week for the death of an 11-week-old infant in her care.
Alison Dorsey, 39, was initially charged with first-degree murder in the death of infant L.H., who died Oct. 8, 2019.
According to court filings, L.H.'s parents dropped him off at Dorsey's for his first day of child care Oct. 7, only to get a call from her hours later that the baby was having trouble breathing and eating.
Doctors later determined the infant had "severe brain hemorrhages, retinal hemorrhages and retinal tearing" consistent with "shaken baby syndrome" and opined that a child suffering such injuries would have obvious, near-immediate symptoms, according to the complaint.
Dorsey was tried in May, and the jury convicted her of the reduced charge of second-degree murder, as well as child endangerment resulting in death. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 35 years before she is eligible for parole. She also must pay $150,000 in restitution to the child's family.
Defense attorneys: child had suffered prior injury
Attorneys Trever Hook and Bill Kutmus, representing Dorsey for post-trial motions and in her upcoming appeal, argue in court filings the jury ignored substantial evidence in their client's favor.
Since there were no witnesses to the alleged abuse, both sides relied heavily on medical experts, with several defense witnesses testifying forensic evidence showed L.H. had signs of a previous head injury sustained well before he was left in Dorsey's care.
"(The state's experts) admitted to it, that there was a prior soft injury," Hook told the Register after Dorsey's sentencing. "They admitted there was an injury to the skull, an old injury, before Alison Dorsey even had custody of the baby that day."
Although L.H's parents told police their baby seemed healthy before going to Dorsey's, the defense also offered testimony from a nurse who saw the baby prior to going to child care and observed "something was wrong with the child" at that time, Kutmus said.
Cass County Attorney Vanessa Strazdas did not return a message Friday seeking comment.
Other recent child care death cases
Dorsey's 50-year sentence is greater than that of several other Iowa child care providers convicted in infant death cases.
Trina Mazza of Johnston was sentenced to 10 years in December after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent person. Prosecutors said a 17-month-old in her care became stuck between two cribs and asphyxiated in 2019 while Mazza, who was caring for more children than allowed under Iowa law, was in another room.
Angela Marxen of Le Claire, who like Dorsey was initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to child endangerment resulting in serious injury and also was sentenced to 10 years. Marxen had admitted to police she had dropped the 5-month-old victim, and waited four hours to call 911, including 45 minutes after noticing the infant girl was showing signs of distress.
Unlike those cases, Dorsey took her case to trial. If the jury had convicted her of first-degree murder as charged, she would have faced a mandatory life sentence in prison.
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2023/07/01/iowa-daycare-provider-sentenced-in-shaken-baby-death-case/70373456007/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
