CLEARFIELD – It took a jury approximately 48 minutes Thursday to find a Clearfield man guilty of assaulting a small child.
Jeremy Michael Sipe, 45, was convicted of endangering the welfare of a child—a felony of the third degree—as well as simple assault—a misdemeanor of the first degree.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers prosecuted the case on behalf of the commonwealth. Sipe was represented by Chris Pentz of the Public Defender’s office.
The jury entered into deliberations at 10:50 a.m. and notified the court it had reached a verdict at 11:38 a.m. Court reconvened once for a question 18 minutes prior to the jury’s decision.
Following the reading of the verdict, Pentz asked for members of the jury to be polled by Judge Paul E. Cherry to confirm they were all in agreement.
The charges filed by Clearfield-based state police stem from an incident that happened on July 15, 2022 at a Croft home in Goshen Township.
The mother told jurors she and Sipe were inside playing with her 16-month-old son when she went outside to check on a relative who was helping with the 100-mile yard sale event.
However, she saw her dog had gotten out and because of the amount of people and traffic that day, she spent about 15 minutes or so trying to get it back inside.
As she was putting the dog in its crate, she noticed Sipe was outside walking up the hill with her child. She yelled for him but stated he apparently didn’t hear her.
When he did return, she saw her son’s face was bloodied and swollen. She immediately confronted Sipe about what he’d done to her child, but he denied having caused his injuries.
Instead, he left saying “he couldn’t deal with this right now,” the woman testified. Later Sipe sent her a text-message claiming the child had fallen over the child safety gate.
She didn’t believe him as that really “didn’t make any sense” to her, she said.
Her son was transported to Penn Highlands Clearfield Hospital where he had an initial examination, and was transferred to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh the next day.
Dr. Jennifer Wolford of UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh testified that the child had numerous bruises on the left side of his head and face.
Further, she said the bruises extended up into his hairline past the left temple and above his ear. He also had bruising around his eyelid, left forehead area, cheek and nose as well as a lip injury.
“This is a 16-month-old with extensive bruising to the left side of the face. The history provided is that the child fell over a baby gate, she said, telling jurors: “this does not explain the extensive bruising.”
These bruises are most consistent with inflicted trauma to the face like a “hand slap.” This is diagnostic of physical child abuse, said Wolford.
She continued, testifying it was also her medical opinion that “if this child returns to this same environment without intervention, he is at serious risk for continued abuse and life-threatening injury.”
Trooper Matthew Peacock testified that he questioned Sipe concerning the incident.
He said Sipe claimed the child’s mother went outside, and while he was in the kitchen getting a drink, he heard a loud bang. He told the trooper when he turned around, the child was lying face down on top of the gate.
He claimed the child’s only injury was an abrasion on his lip, and so he took him for a walk outside to try to console him.
However, Peacock said Sipe did admit that the child was left alone with him, and had no signs of any facial injuries prior to this incident.
During his closing argument, Pentz said the trial was the direct result of “double hearsay” because the child’s mother “freaked out” and just assumed Sipe had assaulted her child.
He said the woman relayed her assumption and disbelief of Sipe’s claims to her mother who furnished it to medical doctors who then relied upon it to make a medical opinion.
Pentz said Sipe offered state police a simple explanation that wasn’t at all an exaggeration on his part.
Sayers said only two people knew what really happened that day and one couldn’t talk. While Sipe didn’t put much effort into his story, he argued the one he did tell didn’t make any sense.
“The child wasn’t even walking yet. He still crawled. So, how does he trip over a baby gate,” he asked jurors.
Sayers said the child was uninjured when he was left under Sipe’s supervision but had suffered extensive injuries upon his mother’s return.
“He (Sipe) says the child tripped over a baby gate, but two medical experts say otherwise,” he said.
Following the trial, Sayers was pleased with the jury’s decision in the case. “Justice was served today … to protect that little child.”
He went on to commend the hard work of Peacock, Pennsylvania State police and the medical staffs at both Penn Highlands Clearfield and UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Their hard work, their observation and their diagnosis got us this [outcome] today.”
