HALAENA HORN - 2 yo - Adrian (SW of Ann Arbor) MI

A medical expert helped convince a judge Friday there was no accident
involved in severe burns a 2-year-old Adrian girl suffered on Dec. 28.

After a hearing in Lenawee County District Court, the suspect was bound
over to face trial in circuit court on torture, first-degree child
abuse and assault charges. A $1 million bond was also continued for
26-year-old Richon Daniel-Reeves Linley of Adrian.

“I don’t find that this was accidental,” ruled district Judge Laura J.
Schaedler. The girl’s badly burned left hand “is not consistent with a
child playing with bleach on the floor.”

The girl’s mother, Jessica Lynn Horn, 25, testified that bleach was the explanation her boyfriend gave for the burns.

She rushed home from errands she was running that afternoon when she
got a text message that her daughter, Halaena, was burned with bleach,
Horn testified. Her daughter was crying and her hand was in a towel when
she got to her apartment at Rivers Bend on West Beecher Street, she
said.

“I unwrapped it and it was white,” Horn said. “I don’t want to say it was blisters, but it was loose skin,” she said.

Linley told her he found Halaena playing in a puddle of bleach on the bathroom floor, Horn told the court.

The girl suffered what is called a “glove type burn,” testified Dr.
Bethany Anne Mohr, director of the child protection team at the
University of Michigan Health System. The burn covered her entire hand
up to an even mark around her wrist, Mohr said.

Common household bleaches are not strong enough to cause the
second-degree burns that Halaena suffered without prolonged exposure,
said Mohr.

“The question then is, did someone hold her hand in bleach for a
significant length of time,” she said. It might take an hour to cause
such severe burns, she said.

It would take only an instant to inflict second-degree burns by dunking
the girl’s hand in 150- to 160-degree hot water, Mohr said. Nerves
would remain intact, she said, and the pain is “typically excruciating”
for that type of burn.

Mohr said Halaena was admitted to the hospital’s trauma burn unit on
Jan. 5. Skin grafting was done on Jan. 8 to repair some of the injuries.

The delay in medical treatment being sought probably did not make the injury worse, Mohr said.

“It made a difference in terms of her suffering during that time period,” she told the court.

Mohr said Halaena is “doing fairly well” in healing, with therapy helping avoid any loss of movement in her hand.

Horn testified that Linley discouraged her from seeking medical help,
telling her nothing could be done for a chemical burn and that her
children would be taken away by Child Protective Services if it was
reported.

Linley sent her a series of text messages on Jan. 2, threatening to report her if she took Halaena to the hospital, Horn said.

Horn took the girl to an emergency room on Jan. 5, she said, “when I was doing everything and it wasn’t getting better.”

She had asked a local pharmacist for advice on treating the burn, she said.

A neighbor’s 14-year-old daughter testified she was in Horn’s apartment, babysitting several children, when Halaena was burned.

She, however, gave contradictory testimony Friday.

She said she saw Linley holding the girl over a sink of steaming hot
water in the bathroom when questioned by Assistant Lenawee County
Prosecutor Douglas Hartung. Later she said it was her younger sister who
saw Linley burn the girl in the bathroom, and that Linley threatened to
kill her if she told.

When questioned by public defender Anna Marie Anzalone, the teen said
she smelled bleach on Halaena when she saw her hand was burned.

Anzalone argued for dismissal of the charges after the two-hour hearing.

“There has been nothing presented to indicate my client is in any way responsible for that injury,” Anzalone told the court.

The pattern and severity of the burn are evidence it was not accidental
or the result of a child playing in spilled bleach, said Schaedler.
Even if the teenage babysitter’s testimony is discounted, Schaedler
said, the evidence still shows the 2-year-old was with Linley when she
was burned.

Schaedler also rejected a request to reduce Linley’s $1 million bond to personal recognizance.

“It makes no sense to reduce bond in this case,” objected Hartung.
Linley has several past convictions involving assaultive behavior, he
said, and there is testimony he threatened to kill a witness.

Linley is to be arraigned in circuit court on May 11.

Horn is scheduled for a hearing the same day in circuit court on a
second-degree child abuse charge for delaying her daughter’s medical
treatment.

http://www.lenconnect.com/news/x729226424/Burned-hand-no-accident-judge-rules-in-child-torture-case

ADRIAN, Mich. —

The mother of a 2-year-old girl whose hand was severely burned by a
former boyfriend was sentenced to probation Monday in Lenawee County
District Court for her failure to immediately seek medical treatment.
Jessica Lynn Horn, 26, of Adrian was also ordered to complete a
parenting program.
Horn pleaded guilty to a reduced simple assault misdemeanor charge in
February. A second-degree child abuse charge was dismissed. Horn was
accused of failing to seek treatment for her daughter’s injury for a
week after the Dec. 28, 2010, burn injury. Judge James E. Sheridan also
handed down a 15-day jail term for a probation violation in an unrelated
bad check case. She was placed on probation for two years for the
assault conviction, ordered to pay $527 court costs and fined $100.
Former boyfriend Richon Daniel-Reeves Linley, 27, of Adrian, was found
guilty of a reduced second-degree child abuse charge after pleading no
contest in circuit court on Jan. 5. Judge Timothy P. Pickard exceeded
sentencing guidelines to hand down a maximum 32-month to four-year
prison term. Linley is eligible for release as early as Nov. 8, 2013.

http://www.lenconnect.com/news/x2020323913/Mom-sentenced-in-burned-girl-case