A Westbrook man is under suicide watch at the Cumberland County Jail after his arrest last Thursday on charges of assaulting a 5-month-old baby.
Steven Waterman, 19, is being held on two counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault of a minor, Camren Anthony Baker. The baby is the son of Waterman’s girlfriend, Jamie Swan, who brought the child to Maine Medical Center.
The baby suffered from battered child syndrome, doctors told police. Battered child syndrome is usually defined as injuries sustained as a result of repeated beatings.
The baby was released from the hospital Tuesday to Swan’s sister, Amy Doane of Gorham, according to Swan’s brother, Bobby Swan of Westbrook. A Maine Medical Center spokesman confirmed late Tuesday only that the baby had been released.
Waterman appeared in court Monday for an arraignment, but did not enter a plea. He is being held on $10,000 cash bail, and his next scheduled court appearance is July 30 in Cumberland County Superior Court.
According to police reports, Waterman was arrested on May 17 after Swan took the baby to the Maine Medical Center’s emergency room with injuries to his body. After examining the baby, a doctor notified the Westbrook police that the baby appeared to be a victim of child abuse. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services was also notified.
Westbrook detectives John Desjardins and Daniel Violette began investigating the incident, along with Dr. Lawrence Ricci of the Spurwink Child Abuse Program and Christina Smith, a protective worker for the state’s Health and Human Services department.
The four officials met with Swan at the hospital. Police say Swan told them she had left the baby, along with her 3-year-old daughter, Emma Fogg, with Waterman at 7:30 that morning while she attended classes at Andover College. She told police she returned to her Main Street apartment at 4:45 p.m., where she was living with Waterman and her two children, and met Waterman in the living room with his friend, Jamie Little. According to the police report, Waterman told Swan the baby was asleep and the 3-year-old had been picked up by her father. Police said Waterman, also the father of a baby girl by another woman, and Little left to visit Waterman’s daughter at Waterman’s mother’s house on East Valentine Street.
Swan told police she then checked on the baby and found fresh bruising. The police report states that Swan then brought the baby to the hospital with the child’s paternal grandmother.
The police report indicates that Ricci, the doctor from the Spurwink Child Abuse program, found the child to have bruises on his brain, some of them fresh and some “days to weeks old.” There was also hemorrhaging at the back of his eyes, severe acute fractures of ribs on both sides of his body, a possible skull fracture, and bruises all over the infants body, including a hand-shaped imprint on the left side of the baby’s face.
Swan told police her son was fine when she left Waterman to babysit, which she said she had done only a few times previously. She said she and Waterman had been dating for about three months but have known each other for six years.
Police went to speak with Waterman at his mother’s Westbrook house, and arrested him on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear on a criminal mischief charge. Police questioned Waterman at the station about the baby’s injuries. Police said he initially said he had placed Camren on a bed, left the room, and returned to find the baby on the floor, with 3-year-old Emma standing over him.
Police told Waterman his story was not consistent with the injuries discovered. The report said Waterman then admitted to shaking the baby “about four times,” and then “slammed him” multiple times on the bed.
The three charges against Waterman all indicate assaults occurring on May 17, leaving the bruises on Baker’s brain that were “days to weeks old” unaccounted for.
Swan could not be reached for comment.
Desjardins said there was no evidence Swan had anything to do with any of the baby’s injuries.
Swan’s other daughter, Emma, is with her father.
Swan is currently pregnant with her third child, this one belonging to Waterman, according to her brother.
Department of Health and Human Services spokesman John Martins declined to release any details about the case.
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