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Father Held On $100,000 Bail In Child Abuse Case

A P Kamath in New York

The first time Trevor Jagmohan brought his newborn child to the hospital with injuries on his head, he told the doctors that the two-week-old Daniel, had accidentally fallen from his (fathers') hands.

The officials at the hospital were concerned about child abuse but the police personnel and social workers who investigated the incident did not have adequate evidence to repudiate Jagmohan's claims and recommend charges.

But two weeks later, when he brought back the baby, this time with a fractured skull and other injuries, Jagmohan was arrested and held on a $100,000 cash bond. At the Queens Criminal Court, he pleaded not guilty to assault in the first degree and endangering the life of a minor.

Officials at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center said they informed the police when they decided the injuries were not consistent with Jagmohan's story.

The child, with multiple skull fractures and other head injuries, is in a critical but stable condition, a spokesperson for the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center said on June 16.

According to the police, Jagmohan maintains what he initially told the doctor when he came to them the second time -- that he had accidentally dropped Daniel while cradling him in his arms. He had caught the baby before he hit the ground but not before his head hit the crib. Daniel's mother told the police she was in the shower when he was injured.

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