"Newborn John" KEETCH - 2 Months/ Accused: Father-Kurt Keech - Pueblo CO

PUEBLO, COLO. -- A young father is behind bars after he is arrested for allegedly abusing his two-month-old son.
Kurt Keetch, 19, of Pueblo West was arrested and charged last week.
Authorities began investigating Keetch after he and his 20-year-old wife
Chelsie brought his unresponsive son to Parkview Hospital May 7.According
to Keetch's arrest affidavit the child had serious brain injuries that
doctors said were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.Doctors
said the baby wasn't stable enough to transport him to Denver so they
performed an emergency surgery to reduce swelling in his brain."The
injuries were diagnosed by the doctors and they say that the injuries
that this young man has, the brain injury is definitely not accidental
so therefore we look at whose care he's been in," Charlene Graham,
Bureau Chief of Law Enforcement Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, said.Medical
personnel also reported several bruises on the child in various stages
of healing. Both Kurt and Chelsie denied knowing about the bruising."These
are extremely difficult, they take a toll on everyone involved
including all the detectives and the people who work on it. Our job as
we say is to serve and protect and obviously in this case we were unable
to protect that child," Graham said.The documents said Chelsie told authorities
Kurt has an anger problem but said he controls it.Kurt
told deputies when he or Chelsie become frustrated with the child they
place him in a car seat in the back room of their house and cover him
with a blanket until he stops crying.Kurt said on that day he went back to check
on the child and discovered he wasn't breathing.Kurt
took the child into the other room where his mother helped to revive
him and then told them they needed to go to the hospital.The
documents said Kurt told authorities the child had been acting fine
earlier in the day, but had struck his head on the carrying arm of his
car seat. However he told them he didn't think that could have caused
the child's injuries.Doctors said the child
suffered from an acute subdural hematoma that had occurred within hours
of surgery and that it was likely caused by trauma.
FOX21 News spoke with Kurt's mother who said her son is innocent.
She said the timelines do not match up and the only reason he is being charged is because he was the last one with the child.
She added that the incident has been traumatic for everyone involved and said her grandson is recovering.
She also said that Chelsie said she didn't want her son anymore, but Kurt remains concerned about the child.
The child is being treated at the Children's Hospital in Denver and is now in the custody of the Department of Social Services.
Kurt is being held on a $200,000 bond.
Authorities said the investigation is ongoing but at this point they don't believe anyone else was involved.
"We let the evidence lead us where it does and so we're gonna continue on
that track until we've exhausted all information," Graham said.
http://www.coloradoconnection.com/news/story.aspx?id=757195#.T7zImlLuCSo