Probe of baby's
death continues - Authorities want to know whether previous abuse went unnoticed
by physicians
Byline: Warren
Cornwall
Published:
04/26/98
One
week after a Rexburg baby died from an alleged beating by his father, police are
investigating whether the child had suffered a pattern of prior abuse that went
unnoticed by physicians.
Rexburg police say William Genther, who died April 18 in a Salt Lake City
hospital, had been treated several times for different injuries during his two
and a half months of life. Those injuries included bruising near an eye,
bleeding into the white of one of his eyes and a broken leg, said Rexburg Police
Chief Lynn Archibald.
Police have subpoenaed medical records from the physicians who treated the
child's earlier injuries in an effort to learn whether the problems could have
been the product of abuse, and whether physicians failed to report suspicions of
child abuse.
''We want to see if the ball was dropped and where it was dropped,'' said
Rexburg Police Sgt. Shane Turman, one of the investigating officers.
Testimony at a court hearing also shows police think the child died not just
from violent shaking, as first announced to the media, but also from a beating.
The boy's father, 19-year-old Benjamin Genther, has been charged with
first-degree murder for the child's death.
The pathologist who performed an autopsy on the child told police it had died
from being shaken and battered, Rexburg Police Sgt. Roy Klingler said at a
probable cause hearing last week.
''The cause of the death was not only from shaken baby (syndrome) but ... the
baby being battered,'' Klingler said he was told by the pathologist, according
to a court tape recording.
Police are offering few details about the extent of the child's injuries.
The father originally told police he accidentally dropped the child while
lifting him out of a crib at the Rexburg trailer where they lived. The child
fell, hit a child car-seat and then hit the floor, Genther claimed, according to
Klingler's testimony. When Klingler told Genther the injuries could not have
come from such a fall, Genther then said he had shaken the baby very hard after
the child had fallen and stopped breathing. As he shook the child, Genther said
the boy's head hit the floor several times, Klingler testified.
Efforts to contact Genther's attorney were unsuccessful. Genther is being held
in Madison County jail without bail.
The examination of the baby's short life could lead to charges against any
physicians who should have reported concerns about abuse, said Chief Archibald.
He would not name any of the physicians involved.
State law requires medical professionals to report suspicions of child abuse to
state child protection officials. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare,
which investigates reports of possible abuse, had no records of being contacted
about the Genthers, said Fred Kirn, with the department's Bureau of Family and
Children's Services in Idaho Falls.
''We have had no previous involvement with the family,'' he said.
Physicians need to look for abuse by asking for explanations of how a child was
injured, said Julie Cantlon. If the scenario offered by witnesses doesn't match
the injuries, then a doctor should suspect abuse, Cantlon said.
Doctors should also review any previous injuries, said Cantlon, who manages
Children at Risk Evaluation Services, a Boise-clinic devoted to assessing
whether or not a child was abused. But rules of patient confidentiality can make
it hard for a doctor to learn of injuries treated by others, she said.
An infant the age of William Genther cannot crawl or walk, ruling out
self-inflicted injuries from accidental falls, said Cantlon. And falls, even
from crib or high-chair height, rarely cause leg fractures, she said.
In the Genther case, police and several people who knew the family say the
father claimed the bloody eye occurred after he accidentally knelt on the child.
Chief Archibald said Genther offered no convincing explanation for the small
fracture in the child's tibia, one of the bones in the lower leg.
''We never did receive a good explanation of what happened,'' Archibald said.
Tracy Backman, who lived in the same trailer park as the Genthers, said she saw
both the bloodshot eye and the bruise near the eye while she was holding the
child several weeks before his death.
The infant's bruise supposedly came from another accident, Backman claimed.
''Coming out of the doorway, I guess they said they bumped his eye,'' she said.
At the time, Backman doubted the explanations offered by Benjamin Genther and
his 17-year-old wife. But she decided it wasn't her place to report her concerns
to Health and Welfare, she said.
''I wish I would've,'' she said. ''Because it probably would have saved him.''
