EVERETT — Like many young boys, J.B. smiles, babbles and loves cuddles.
But the 7-year-old boy also needs 14 hours of nursing every day. He won’t ever be able to sleep without a device to help him breathe. And he’ll never be able to use his hands or feet without support.
In the summer of 2017, when J.B. was just a newborn, his father, Joseph Bradley, shook him hard and dropped him on a wood table in their Everett apartment, prosecutors alleged.
A doctor diagnosed the boy, identified in court papers by his initials, with a fractured skull and massive bleeding on his brain, according to court papers. Medical staff also treated him for severe seizures connected to his head injury.
Initially, his parents told police his 16-month-old sister had hit him in the face with a plastic block, according to court documents. A doctor hypothesized the boy was struck against a hard flat surface, causing cranial whiplash. The doctor told police the block couldn’t have caused the injuries.
The day after the plastic block incident, the mother reportedly left the baby with Bradley, now 42, while she went to work at Fred Meyer.
In a police interview, Bradley said he wasn’t aware of anything that could have caused the boy’s injuries. But he later reported his son “flopped and face planted on the table.” Bradley explained he shook his son and dropped the boy. He said the shaking was “one jolt” and then “I was trying to feed him and I dropped him.” He acknowledged it was “probably” a hard shake to get the baby to stop crying.
A few months later, prosecutors charged Bradley in Snohomish County Superior Court with first-degree assault of a child. After years of delays, the case finally came to trial this June. After a 2-week trial, a jury convicted the defendant as charged.
On Oct. 29, prosecutors urged Superior Court Judge Miguel Duran to sentence Bradley to 22½ years in prison.
In a letter to the judge, the boy’s adoptive mother pleaded for the hefty sentence.
“JB has been through a lot since becoming part of our family with both my husband I by his side,” she wrote. “We have learned a lot and know that JB will not live a long and healthy life due to his medical conditions. His life will be short because of what Joseph chose to do.”
The judge handed down an 18-year prison term for the defendant.
Prior to this case, Bradley had no felony history.
However, a few years after prosecutors charged him, he was accused of taking his girlfriend’s weeks-old puppy and slamming it on the ground, killing it. He pleaded guilty to first-degree theft and second-degree animal cruelty in that case.
Duran sentenced him to nine months on the theft charge, to be served concurrently with the child abuse sentence. The judge also gave Bradley a 364-day suspended sentence on the animal cruelty charge.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; X: @GoldsteinStreet.
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