Kirk Swauger, Special to the Times-News
November 12, 2006 09:01 am
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SOMERSET, Pa. - A Somerset man accused of brutally stun-gunning and breaking the leg of his 7-week-old daughter was escorted into a closed court Thursday as authorities began determining custody for the child.
Wearing a bright-orange prison jumpsuit, 21-year-old Brandon Alan Austill declined to comment as he was taken by a sheriff's deputy to the dependency hearing.
Judge David Klementik refused to allow The Tribune-Democrat to make a motion for the hearing - traditionally closed to the public - to be open based on a three-year-old state Superior Court decision in a Westmoreland County case.
The hearing was postponed to allow Austill to get an attorney, a source close to the investigation said.
The child has been released from Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and is in foster care, authorities said.
Psychological experts and police consider the allegations against Austill among the most malicious they've ever seen.
"This is highly unusual," said Somerset psychiatrist Dr. Glenn Kashurba.
"If you look at even some of the more sensational cases that result in a child's death, they're usually shaken baby syndrome by somebody who does it impulsively," he said.
"What you're describing is an ongoing pattern. That puts it out of the realm of what you normally see."
Borough police said Austill has admitted to smashing the baby's head onto a bathroom sink and dining-room table, bending her leg over his shoulder until he heard it break, and twice using a handheld, Power-Mite electric prod on her.
Authorities said Austill conceded he treated the child improperly, adding he routinely could not get his daughter to stop crying.
The incidents reportedly happened between Sept. 11 - four days after the girl was born - and Oct. 31.
Austill and the child's mother, Briana Dawn Clark, took the child to Somerset Hospital on Halloween.
The infant had a broken left tibia, broke left ulna, broken left femur, facial injuries and two skull fractures, police said in a criminal complaint. She later was transported to Children's Hospital.
"You hear about a lot of cases where, for whatever reasons, parents snap and act out against the children," borough police Chief Randy Cox said. "But they don't seem to carry the malice that this case does."
Medical records, police said, show the injuries were at various stages of healing and had occurred at separate times.
On Aug. 23, Austill was cited by the borough police with disorderly conduct for openly carrying a BB gun while walking on West Union Street.
He was fined $269.50.
Now, Austill is being housed in the county jail on $75,000 bond for eight counts each of child endangerment and reckless endangerment; six counts each of aggravated assault and simple assault; and two counts each of carrying a prohibited offensive weapon and possessing an instrument of crime.
Sitting on a bench outside the courtroom Thursday, Clark declined to comment.
On the door to Clark and Austill's third-floor apartment at 800 E. Main St., a sign read, "Shoes off at the door." A cartoonish Frankenstein proclaimed, "Trick or treat."
Neighbors said they didn't know the family well, or were unwilling to talk.
In a 2003 case filed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Superior Court determined that a constitutional presumption of openness for court cases applies to juvenile proceedings.
But access may be denied, the court said, if the parties seeking closure demonstrate it serves a compelling government interest that cannot be achieved through less-restrictive measures. While authorities may argue they want to protect the identity of Austill's daughter, her name was included in the criminal complaint.
The Tribune-Democrat does not publish the identities of juvenile abuse victims.
Kirk Swauger is a reporter for the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat.
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