When Joshua Miller was accused of shaking his infant son so severely that it caused bleeding into the baby’s eyes and brain he was charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment, reckless endangerment and simple assault.
In January of 2009 Mr. Miller and his son were home alone. Miller made a frantic call to 911 saying that his son was unresponsive and gasping for breath. Upon arrival at the hospital the baby was treated and transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh where he was kept for 7 days.
When this case went to court it there were conflicting opinions in what could have caused the bleeding the infant’s brain. The prosecutions medical expert said that the bleeding was due to the baby being shaken, and that no evidence was found to indicate that there was any underlying problem that would have caused the bleeding.
Another expert who has written extensively about shaken baby cases said that the bleeding was caused by what was most likely a birth injury which caused damage to the membrane around the brain.
At this time Joshua Miller has not been called to the stand, and there is a bit of upheaval in the courts concerning a possible mistrial being declared due to misinformation concerning the baby’s mother. What remains is that this child was harmed in some way and it is up to medical experts, the police and the courts to decide whether his father is guilty of the damage or whether it was in fact an old birth injury.
