"Toddler John Doe" - 2 yo/ Accused: Rudolph Benirschke - Sheboygan WI

A 20-year-old Sheboygan man was charged Tueday for allegedly breaking a 2-year-old boy’s clavicle in September.


Rudolph
J. Benirschke, of 514-A S. 14th St., denies injuring the child, but
multiple doctors said the injury was too severe to be accidental and
noted the child would have been screaming in pain, according to a
criminal complaint. The child — the son of Benirschke’s girlfriend — did
not get medical help until his father picked him up from Benirschke’s
house a short time later.
The boy suffered the injuries
Sept. 27, but Benirschke was not arrested until Monday. He is charged
with felony child abuse — recklessly causing great bodily harm, which
carries a penalty of up to 16 years in prison due to a penalty enhancer
from a prior burglary conviction.
According to the complaint:
Benirschke
was left alone with his girlfriend’s two children — the 2-year-old and a
1-year-old boy — about noon, and when the 2-year-old’s father picked
the boy up about 1 p.m. he noticed the boy was hunched over and crying.
The boy said Benirschke had punched him, which Benirschke denied when
confronted by the father.
The boy’s mother, Benirschke’s
girlfriend, said the 1-year-old had pushed a TV off a chair and onto the
2-year-old, but the boy said the TV actually fell on his younger
brother.
The boy was taken to the hospital, and doctors
said he had his clavicle broken by a hammer-type blow, such as when a
fist is slammed down. An orthopedic surgeon later said the injury —
which also tore through shoulder muscles — was the worst he’d seen in
his 24-year career and would have caused the boy to scream and lose use
of his arm due to the pain.
Dr. Lynn Sheets, a child abuse
specialist with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, said the type of
fracture is uncommon in accidental injuries, as it required severe and
unusual force that a child could not generate in a fall or collision.
In
interviews with police, Benirschke first said the boys were asleep when
his girlfriend left, then later said they were awake. He denied hurting
the boy and theorized the boy could have been injured while Benirschke
was in the bathroom for 20 minutes.

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