UNNAMED BOY - 2 yo (12/13) - / Charged: Boyfriend, Tad Montana Becker - St Paul, MN

St. Paul man severely bruised 2-year-old boy, charges say

By Emily Gurnon

Posted:   04/30/2014 12:01:00 AM CDT | Updated:   about 6 hours ago




Tad Montana Becker (Courtesy of Ramsey County sheriff's office)



A St. Paul man with four previous felony convictions was charged with malicious punishment of a child after the toddler he was watching was hospitalized with bruising and persistent vomiting.

The boy's mother asked her boyfriend, Tad Montana Becker, to babysit her 2-year-old on Dec. 10, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court.

The boy had been vomiting the previous night but had no marks on his body when his mother left for work, the complaint said.
According to the charges:

Becker, 27, was sitting on the couch crying when the mother returned home. He told her, "You're going to be mad at me," and explained that the boy had burned his finger when Becker was in the basement washing his soiled clothes.
After the mother turned the boy over to his father later that day, the father noticed marks on the boy. He took the next two days off work and stayed home to care for the child, who continued to vomit.

The father took the boy to Children's Hospital on Dec. 12. Doctors noted bruises on his jaw, lip, left ear, stomach and lower back. He also had an injury to his lip and a chipped tooth.

More ominous were a "possible laceration of the spleen and signs of a bowel injury" which showed up on a CT scan. The scan also showed a "questionable healing fracture" of a rib.

The boy's internal injuries appeared to cause the vomiting by interfering with bowel function.

The hospital discharged him two days later. But he continued to vomit "one to five times a day" when back at home. The mother returned him to the hospital. He was readmitted Jan. 22. Doctors found a small bowel obstruction and performed surgery to remove part of the bowel.

The injuries likely occurred before the boy originally came to the hospital Dec. 10.

"In the absence of known trauma, the cause of (his) injuries was diagnosed as child abuse," the complaint said.

Becker told police upon his arrest that the day he watched the boy was uneventful. He denied he disciplined him.

Police showed him pictures of the bruising on the boy's abdomen. It "matched up with an adult man's hands grabbing him hard," police said. Becker said he picked the boy up after he burned his finger but denied doing it forcefully.

He said he was crying when the boy's mother got home because he hadn't seen his own daughter since getting out of jail two months earlier.

He faces one charge of felony malicious punishment of a child.

Becker was being held in lieu of $40,000 bail Wednesday at the Ramsey County Jail. No attorney was listed for him on a court record Wednesday.

Further information about the child's current condition could not be obtained Wednesday.


http://www.twincities.com/crime/ci_25669270/st-paul-man-severely-bruised-2-year-old