CLEARFIELD — A Clearfield man has been accused of assaulting a 16-month-old child.
Police charged Jeremy Michael Sipe, 43, with felony endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault in connection to his actions on July 15 at a home in Goshen Township, Clearfield County.
The criminal complaint details how police were contacted after the child was taken to Penn Highlands Clearfield. Initially, the story was the child had fallen over a baby gate.
But when investigators spoke with the mother, she said that Sipe was in her home with the child while she was outside looking for her dog.
When she got back inside, she saw him outside walking with the baby up the hill. She yelled for him to bring the baby back, but he acted like he didn’t hear her.
Eventually he went back into the house, where she met him in the kitchen.
The child was fussing, she said, and when she looked at him, she could see he was injured. She asked Sipe what happened to the boy, and he claimed he tripped over the baby gate.
She didn’t believe him and asked what he did to the child’s face. He responded that he “wasn’t dealing with this and left,” she told police.
In his interview with police, Sipe explained he had been staying with the victim’s mother for about three weeks. On that day, he said when the victim’s mother went outside to look for the dog, she didn’t put the gate back, but just leaned it up.
After a few minutes he heard a loud noise and found the child lying on his face on the gate.
When the victim’s mother returned, she yelled at him for hurting the baby. He said the only injury he saw was to the child’s lip.
At one point, he reportedly did admit to using methamphetamine and said he smoked some residue the morning of the incident. He continued to deny he did anything to cause the injuries, but confirmed he was the only one in the house with the child, police said.
A report from UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh indicated the child had “numerous bruises on the left side of the head and face.” The bruises extended up into his hairline past the left temple and above his ear. His lip had some swelling and bruising.
“These bruises are most consistent with inflicted trauma to the face, possibly a hand slap. This is diagnostic of physical child abuse,” according to the report, which went on to state “if this child returns to this same environment without intervention, he is at serious risk for continued abuse and life threatening injury.”
Sipe waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday during centralized court. He is being held in the Clearfield County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
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