There were times Thursday when Bradley Floyd Bauer could barely answer the judge.
With hesitation, the 27-year-old Everett father managed to blurt out the word “guilty” when Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Eric Lucas asked him how he pleaded to the charge of second-degree assault of a child.
Bauer’s 5-week-old daughter was left temporarily blind and with broken bones and possible brain injuries. Physicians don’t know how much permanent damage was done. Experts believe her injuries are consistent with those inflicted on victims of shaken baby syndrome.
Bauer, who recently changed his last name from Wgeishofski, was arrested March 23 after his daughter was put into intensive care at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle with what officials believed were life-threatening injuries.
He stands to spend five or six years behind bars after he is sentenced June 7.
Bauer told officials March 17 that he was carrying the baby, tripped on a telephone cord and fell on her in the family home. He called 911, saying the baby was not acting normally.
The call came about 45 minutes after the injuries, and after the mother “noticed the baby shaking and twitching and gasping,” according to court papers.
Physicians who examined the baby say it’s unlikely her injuries occurred as Bauer said, deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said.
The bleeding inside her head was consistent with being shaken, Matheson said. She also had rib and upper leg fractures, and suffered from seizures as a result of the other injuries. Some of the infant’s injures appeared to have happened before the March 17 assault, Matheson said.
The girl has responded to treatment, but “the prognosis as to her eyesight is something the doctors can’t tell us,” Matheson said. Because of her age, it’s also difficult to tell how much permanent brain damage was done, he added.
The girl is in foster care, Matheson said.
Several times during Thursday’s court hearing, Bauer came close to tears, often barely able to answer Lucas, who was questioning him about the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty. He stood by his lawyer, public defender Anna Goykhman, who handed him tissues.
Lucas asked about the plea agreement with the prosecutor, and Bauer told the judge that Matheson had threatened to file a more serious charge, prompting him to admit his guilt.
Bauer has previous convictions for burglary, criminal sexual conduct, attempting to flee from police and failure to register as a sex offender.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
