Posted on 10/15/2003 4:19:17 PM PDT by mhking
On Tuesday, a lawyer for a nanny accused of violently handling a Hollywood infant said a videotape of the caregiver and the child, which has aired repeatedly on television, is misleading.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Allison Gilman said that slowing the tape, which shows Claudia Muro, 29, shaking the 5-month-old back and forth so aggressively that the baby's legs and arms whip back and forth, would likely show Muro ''playfully'' treating the infant.
After seeing the tape, Hollywood police charged Muro with four counts of felony child abuse. According to the child's parents, the child has undergone a battery of tests and appears to be uninjured.
With the help of news partner WFOR CBS-4, The Herald tried to examine the tape as the attorney suggested.
But the tape does not play like a movie with smoothly flowing images. Shot through cameras concealed in the living room and kitchen, it is more like a surveillance tape with occasional pauses. The automatic clock at the bottom of the picture indicates that the events shown on TV were recorded in real time.
Slowing the tape or speeding it up still shows Muro lifting the baby under her armpits and whipping her back and forth repeatedly. When the tape is paused and the baby's face is shown, her mouth is open, her eyes squinting.
There is no sound on the tape, but the child appears to be crying.
Dr. Walter F. Lambert, medical director of the University of Miami's Child Protection Team, has viewed the footage.
During his career, Lambert has seen scores of incidents of Shaken Baby Syndrome, which the American Academy of Pediatrics defines as violent shaking of an infant with symptoms ranging from irritability, tremors, and vomiting to seizures, coma, and death. Such neurological changes are caused by the destruction of brain cells secondary to trauma, lack of oxygen to brain cells, and brain swelling.
He believes the daughter of Jennifer and Brett Schwartz is lucky.
''If people felt that the shaking [in the video] is violent, and it was, imagine how hard someone must shake a baby to cause Shaken Baby Syndrome,'' said Lambert.
`THAT'S NOT PLAY'
``I saw the tape, and the worst thing I saw were the possible impact injuries. You do not pick a baby up and slam the baby down. That's not play. That's not how you play with a 5-month-old. [Gilman] can say whatever she likes, but any prudent person watching that tape knows that's excessive.''
According to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome in Ogden, Utah, there were about 1,300 incidents in 2002 involving physically traumatized infants. That is a rough number because it applies only to cases reported by hospitals and child-abuse organizations. In many instances, injuries resulting from shaking are not recorded as Shaken Baby Syndrome but categorized by the injuries themselves.
Lambert noted that the video shows Muro grasping the baby under the armpits as she shakes it.
''She was holding the child by the trunk, and when that happens people tend to squeeze the ribs and cause rib fractures,'' he said. ``With the extremities moving back and forth, that can cause fractures.''
Amy Wicks, spokeswoman for the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, said the Muro video has been the main topic of industry chat rooms.
'This is the first case we've seen in a long time where a `nanny cam' caught the images so clearly,'' she said.
UNDOCUMENTED
Muro will remain in the North Broward Detention Facility until her Oct. 23 bond hearing. Immigration officials could deport her to Peru because she has lived without proper documents in the United States since 1997, Gilman said. But deportation before her case is over is unlikely.
According to Gilman, Muro does not have children with husband Joseph Brooks of Miami Beach, whom she married 15 months ago. The nanny had just begun to apply for U.S. citizenship when she was arrested last Friday.
Gilman also said that Muro worked for a North Miami family for two years before she was hired by the Schwartzes five months ago.
Gilman would not give the couple's name, but said the man is a doctor and his wife plans to attend the bond hearing to support Muro. They were on the reference list given to the Schwartzes, the attorney said.
Numerous messages left for the Schwartzes on Tuesday were not returned.
It was unclear whether the North Miami couple hired Muro through All In One Services of Sunny Isles Beach, the same agency the Schwartzes used.
A woman at the business who would only give her first name, Gabby, told The Herald on Tuesday that the temporary employment agency's owner was out of town and unavailable for comment.
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But with a hearty thank you!
I'd suggest that attorney Gilman allow one of her children to be "played" with the same way her client "played" with that baby and see if she thinks it's just fine and dandy.
According to the attorney for the suspect, it was just "play." If it's just "play," what harm could it do to the infant?
Neither have I. And her attorney can join her in jail and accompany her client back to her client's homeland.
I worked for defense attorneys for years. When they'd test their theories of the case on me, about 75% of the time I'd look at them and say, "that's BS. No jury in the world is going to buy that." And 99% of the time I was right.
Sounds like one of the attorneys I worked with--he was King of the Plea Bargains. He especially enjoyed it when he'd hear the ADA in charge of traffic cases was out for the day--the one that chanted "guidelines" in every DUI case. He'd set land speed records down to the DA's office to see who was subbing.
Now that I've established my cred, at least as much as it can be on the web, this "Nanny" should be shot. Tried, and convicted of attempted murder. Even with the reduced framerate, resulting in the jerkiness of the video, there is more than enough there to be able to tell that she isn't just "playing" with the child. At one point she even open-hand slaps the child.
There is never a justification for slap a child that is only months old. Never. Ever. If this had been where I could see it, I would have applied the beat down on the Nanny right then and there. If this had been my child, there wouldn't be enough left of the Nanny to identify her without having to dig up her dental records.
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