On December 28, Clifton Haugen called 911 to report that his four-month-old son was unresponsive and having difficulty breathing, according to documents filed today in King County Superior Court that charge Haugen with assault. Doctors at Valley Medical Center told police that the baby was suffering from a bilateral subdural hemotoma—a hemorrhage associated with baby shaking—and “numerous rib fractures,” both new and old. “Based on information available to me at this time,” a doctor examining the infant stated in her report to police, “these multiple injuries of different ages are diagnostic of child abuse.”
Prosecutors are charging Haugen—who has prior convictions of assault (one reduced from rape), stalking, burglary, and domestic violence—with first degree child assault. Due to the prior convictions, Haugen could face a sentence of nine to 12 years in prison if found guilty, says county prosecutor spokesman Dan Donohoe.
But Haugen denies the accusations. According to court records, Haugen told his wife that “while walking up the stairs the previous morning he missed a step. He fell on top of [the boy] and then rolled down the entire flight of stairs. He told her that the boy stopped breathing and he performed CPR to bring him back to life.
However, the baby’s “injuries, especially the older ones, are not explained by a fall,” according to charging documents. If the boy survives, court documents say he will most likely be blind and suffer long-term effects from the brain injury.
let’s set his bail at $200,000 so he can borrow $20K from his pals and use the ten percent down same as cash plan, get out of jail, and create more mayhem!
Certainly the rib injuries look suspicious, but I’m surprised anyone gets charged with Shaken Baby Syndrome now, given some of the recent studies that indicate it’s not a real diagnosis.
Um, TVDinner, read your link. It says that their study claims that bleeding from the eyes alone might not be sufficient to diagnose shaken baby syndrome. But it also says, “However, they say that if all three elements – brain damage and bleeding, and bleeding from the eyes – are present, this is powerful evidence that undue force has been applied. “
“Not a real diagnosis”? Don’t make things up, OK?
Ugh, 4 months old and already has brain injury and repeated rib injuries? What an asshole. I have a 7-month old and am practically paralyzed with fear every time I carry her that I will drop her or something. /angry
@2, That’s a pretty bold statement. You don’t think a subdural hematoma in a 4-month old is that serious? The article didn’t say SBS isn’t a real diagnosis, just that the specifc eye injury in question isn’t necessarily always an indicator of SBS.
9 to 12 years?! Excuse me??? For what amounts to attempted murder of a 4-month-old?? For a pattern of abuse resulting in, “most likely”, blindness and brain damage????!
Can’t we just kill the fucker? Slowly and publicly, so the sick fucks out there who like to beat on kids can see what they’ll get if they keep it up? That doesn’t seem cruel or unusual to me…. at the moment…….
Somebody please sterilize that creep
Shouldn’t this be under the category: Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father? Where the hell is Savage? Asleep at the switch?
Thank god that gay marriage is still illegal in most places, otherwise real marriages would turn into hellish living arrangements. Or something.
I agree that 9-12 years seems light, particularly given the previous convictions. I don’t have any convictions for anything…can I shake a baby half to death and only get, say, 3-4 years? If so, I may have to readjust my priorities in life.
@5: “Can’t we just kill the fucker?”
Just kill the fucker?
That’s an inexcusably horrible thing to say!
They should cut his dick off and stuff it in his mouth, crush his balls in a vice, hook him up to an industrial agitator until he bleeds from the eyes, fracture each of his ribs one at a time, gouge his eyes out with a spoon, and THEN kill him.
I wonder if he’s any relation to Virginia Haugen, the Auburn city councilwoman? Wouldn’t be terribly surprised if that particular apple fell from the same tree.
Child abuse is probably the one crime in this country that isn’t punished severely enough.
Give me 10 minutes alone in a room with this piece of shit and I will kick in his fucking ribs and bash his brain in to the wall. Then I would rip his balls off so he can’t have another kid to abuse.