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Shaler Father Accused Of Child Abuse Claims Innocence, Defense Attorney Points Blame At His Wife

SHALER TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- A Shaler Township father facing felony charges for allegedly abusing his child in "one of the most violent cases" officials have ever seen has hired a team of attorneys who insist his wife is guilty.

Jamie Easley and his wife, Katie, are charged alongside for the alleged abuse of their newborn daughter, who was admitted to UPMC Children's Hospital with the injuries in September 2019 in "one of the most violent cases" the hospital's doctors have seen.

Jamie waived his hearing on Thursday and got one count of aggravated assault taken off his list of charges.

He is still facing one felony charge for endangering the welfare of children.

On Thursday, Jamie's attorneys — Blaine Jones and Angela Hayden — seemed pleased with the actions in court

"We take what we can get as a defense," Hayden said. "We got a charge knocked off. It makes our job a little easier"

Jamie left the courtroom crying on Thursday.

jamie-easley
(Source: Shaler Township Police)

"He hasn't been proven guilty of anything," Jones said. "In fact, you saw the tears, you saw the crying, you saw the emotion. He misses his family"

According to police, the 4-week-old girl was taken to Children's Hospital after her primary care doctor found multiple bruises on her face and abdomen.

The child's mother allegedly told the doctor the little girl had not eaten in nearly two days.

At the hospital, doctors found the girl had skull fractures, subdural hemorrhages, 19 rib fractures and other fractures to her left arm and her legs. She was admitted in critical condition to the hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Katie was charged nearly three months after her husband's arrest.

Police charged Katie with a felony endangering the welfare of children. The criminal complaint accuses Katie of not taking her critically injured baby to the hospital until the 31-day-old newborn stopped eating.

It also says detectives later searched Katie's phone history and allegedly found Google searches from earlier in the month including "bruising on baby" and "why isn't my baby eating?"

Police say Children's Hospital doctors said "given the age of the victim, it was one of the most violent cases of child abuse they have seen, bone in arm completely snapped in half, and the worst rib fractures they have seen."

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