A 29-year-old Oxford man last week was charged with child abuse for allegedly violently shaking his newborn baby, causing serious injury to the infant.
Christopher Arthur Bobek was arraigned in Rochester Hills 52-3 District Court Friday on charges of first- and second-degree child abuse stemming from a Monday, Jan. 24 incident in which he allegedly violently shook his 28-day-old son because the baby wouldn’t stop crying.
If convicted, Bobek faces up to 15 years in prison.
The newborn was last reported to be on a ventilator at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. The infant is expected to live, but with long-term complications.
It all started Jan. 24 when Oxford Fire personnel were called to 374 Nuttall Branch (a street in the Lake Villa Manufactured Home Park) to provide emergency medical aid to a baby who had stopped breathing.
The Bobek baby was transported to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, but was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Michigan Jan. 25 with signs of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).
Medical staff at Children’s Hospital confirmed the baby is a victim of SBS, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s investigators interviewed the baby’s mother who told them the father shook the baby because he was angry the infant wouldn’t stop crying.
Using dolls, the mother demonstrated to investigators the ‘very violent? way Bobek allegedly shook the newborn, according to sheriff’s officials.
Bobek admitted to sheriff’s investigators he shook the baby because the infant was crying, but attempted to downplay incident, according to sheriff’s officials. He was arrested Thursday.
A Jan. 27 hearing in Circuit Court’s Family Division authorized a petition seeking to terminate the parental rights of both Bobek and the mother with regards to the newborn and a two-year-old sibling.
A pre-trial hearing garding this petition is set for Thursday, Feb. 3 before Judge Joan E. Young.
Bobek is currently barred from visiting either child, while the mother is allowed supervised visitation, according to Assistant Prosecutor Sara Pope-Starnes.
The two-year-old sibling was placed with the Family Independence Agency (FIA), which determines if there is an appropriate relative to care for the child, Pope-Starnes said.
If a suitable relative can’t be found, FIA places the child in foster care, something Pope-Starnes indicated is likely to happen in this case.
Bobek is currently free on a 10 percent, $100,000 bond.
His preliminary examination is set for Thursday, Feb. 3 in Rochester Hills 52-3 District Court before Judge Nancy T. Carniak