Doctors tell of baby's broken bones

During a hearing Friday to determine if there was enough evidence to try a Carson City father on a charge of child abuse, two Carson City doctors testified that a 9-week-old baby brought into the emergency room in April sustained several broken bones, some of which had already healed.

Daniel Maxfield Jr., 32, is charged with one count of child abuse causing substantial bodily harm.

Doctors Maurice Mayer and Christopher Highley detailed fractures to the infant's arm, leg, ribs and two separate areas of bleeding in the child's brain.

"The exam did not match the story and that raised the concern of abuse," said Mayer, who called police after seeing the baby's injuries in an X-ray.

At about 10 p.m. April 18, Maxfield took the child to the emergency room at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center after the baby coughed up blood.

According to police reports, Maxfield initially denied harming the infant. But in an interview with a detective later, he allegedly admitted to lifting the baby by its arm and, in another instance, holding onto the infant tightly while fighting with the baby's mother.

Mayer said he'd seen such injuries in older children who were mobile, but that they were more uncommon for an infant to sustain because their bones are "flexible."

"From all my training, such injuries on children this age are a sign of abuse," he said.

District Attorney Neil Rombardo asked if the break to the baby's arm could have come from being lifted.

"I've never seen a child get a broken arm by lifting," said Mayer.

Highley concurred with that statement.

"It would not usually result in the fracture of a forearm," he said.

Rombardo asked Maxfield, sitting at the defense table in a black and white striped jail uniform, to stand.

"If he picks up a 2-month-old by the arm, do you think he's strong enough to break it," Rombardo asked Highley.

"He's a pretty big guy," said Highley. "He could break it."

Testimony is set to resume Aug. 12.

Maxfield remains in custody in the Carson City Jail on $20,000 bail.