Woman Facing Charges of Child Endangerment After Injuring Infant

A resident of Freed’s Trailer Park in New Galilee, 24 year-old Courtney Marie Jeffries, will be facing charges of simple assault and endangering the welfare of children, proceeding an incident that occurred last month involving her three month old daughter.

According to the criminal complaint, the daughter of Jeffries was taken to the Ellwood City Hospital with an injury to the child’s right arm. The infant was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC and a medical personnel at the facility examined the child and diagnosed her with a fracture on her upper arm.

Jeffries stated in her police report that the incident happened after her daughter was sleeping in a swing in the living room of their home while she attempted to sleep in a rocking chair.

Jeffries said she was unable to sleep due to being frustrated over the recent deaths of her grandparents and issues related to her job. When her daughter woke up crying, she grabbed the infant by her right upper arm and “shook it back and forth once or twice”, and when she heard a snap and the infant started crying, she realized her daughter was injured.

Jeffries stated did not believe her arm was broken and thought it was only dislocated so she waited until the next day to see if the swelling would go down on its own. The infant would hold the injured arm to her abdomen, and after the swelling and tenderness didn’t go away, Jeffries decided to take the infant to the hospital.

The examining doctor stated in her report that “this action was out of the realm of any kind of reasonable infant care, and is highly concerning for physical child abuse.”