NEWBORN GIRL - 16 days (5/2013) - / Convicted: Mother; Joanette Alvarado - Bethlehem PA

Mother sentenced in abuse of her 2-week-old baby
Joanette Alvarado will serve 1 to 2 years in Northampton County Prison.

June 20, 2014
By Riley Yates, Of The Morning Call

A Bethlehem woman convicted of abusing her 2-week-old daughter, who was taken to a hospital suffering from a broken leg and collarbone, will serve one to two years in Northampton County Prison.

Joanette Alvarado, 31, received the sentence Friday from Northampton County Judge Michael Koury Jr. after earlier pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of simple assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.



The girl was 16 days old in May 2013 when Alvarado brought her to the emergency room of St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill, where X-rays revealed fractures to her right femur and left clavicle, police said.

Alvarado claimed to medical officials that the baby had been pulled from the sofa of her Atlantic Street home by her 20-month-old sister, and had landed on the floor. But a doctor reviewing the medical records concluded child abuse, finding the injuries were inconsistent with the mother's story and would have required significant force, according to court records.

Standing before Koury, a crying Alvarado continued to insist that the fractures were caused by a fall. But she also said she was "really, really, really sorry," has made efforts to better herself in jail, and hopes that her three children can one day forgive her.

Defense attorney Vivian Zumas said her client was in the throes of a heroin addiction that began as she tried to cope with personal problems: a bad relationship and her parents' divorce after three decades of marriage. The arrest has proven a wake-up call, Zumas said.

"By all accounts, she was not a horrible mom, except on this one day," Zumas said.

By pleading no contest, Alvarado acknowledged that prosecutors could prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. It is treated the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

Koury's sentence, which also calls for five years of probation, allowed Alvarado to remain in county jail, instead of serving harder time in the state prison system.

Koury handed it down as Assistant District Attorney Patricia Broscius took no position on where Alvarado should be incarcerated, saying that protecting the children — who are now in foster care with relatives — was the primary objective.

"I don't believe that the defendant is unremorseful," Broscius said. "I don't doubt her sincerity for one minute."

Koury noted that Alvarado, an eighth-grade dropout, had been unemployed for a year and a half before her arrest. What started as a bag-a-day heroin habit had progressed to four bags a day, Koury said.

Once she is released from prison, Alvarado will be randomly drug tested to ensure she remains sober. Koury also ordered her to find a full-time job.

"Having a child makes you no more of a parent that having a piano makes you a pianist," Koury told the defendant, invoking a saying he once heard. "Ms. Alvarado, you have failed your child, I don't think anyone disputes that."

http://articles.mcall.com/2014-06-20/news/mc-bethlehem-broke-baby-daughters-leg-20140620_1_koury-child-abuse-2-week-old-baby