WEBVTT - #357 Jason Flom with Jennifer Del Prete 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:04.880 On December twenty seventh, two thousand and two, Jennifer del 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.840 Prete was working at a daycare facility in Romeoville, Illinois. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:10.239 One of the children in her care, a nearly four 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:12.520 month old girl, was struggling to breathe and was nearly 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.239 limp del Prete claimed to have given the infant a 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.880 slight shake to rouse her, in addition to a few 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.960 pats in case anything was launched in her throat. As 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.000 the child's condition deteriorated, Jennifer called nine to one one 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.760 and reported that the child was not breathing and had 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.240 no pulse. Paramedics were able to restart the little girl's heart, 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.919 but she remained unconscious. Cat scans revealed recent as well 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.000 as older bleeding within the coverings of the brain. A 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.720 few days later, retinal hemorrhaging appeared as well, and physicians 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.800 concluded that the child's injuries were the result of violent 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.559 shaking at the hand of her most recent caregiver, Jennifer 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.239 del Prete, who was charged with child battery, but just 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.760 over ten months later, the child died and the charge 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.480 was upgraded to murder. At trial, the state's four experts 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.680 made their case that the evidence of the most recent 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.880 brain bleed had to have been the result of violent shaking, 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.760 while the evidence of older bleeds must have meant that 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.840 the abuse was ongoing. It would seem unlikely that all 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:15.640 these medical professionals would have missed some other lingering medical condition, right, 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:30.880 but this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.200 Today we have a shaken baby prosecution which there appeared 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.240 to be warning signs that this young infant girl was sick, 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.399 but the cause was just missed before it was too late, 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.440 and instead her death was mistakenly attributed to alleged abuse 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.120 at the hand of our guest today, Jennifer del Preet. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:49.880 Welcome to Wrongful Conviction. 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:51.760 Well, hello, thank you for having me. 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.240 You're very welcome and joining us to help tell this story. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.720 Is Jenny's a pellet counsel from Blagan and Garvey, Pat Blagan, Pat, 0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:58.800 welcome to the show. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:01:59.160 Thanks. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.160 Now he became familiar with SPS shaking baby syndrome because 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.200 of this case, and we've covered this multi hypothesis on 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.560 wrongful Conviction junk Science with our host Josh Dubin and 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.120 the executive director of the Center for Integrity and Forensic 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.520 Science as Kate Judson, who will join us later to 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.119 talk about how it relates to Jenny's prosecution. Now, back 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.720 in nineteen seventy one, when this hypothesis was first posited 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.520 by doctor Dorman guth Kelch, he was searching for the 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.960 cause of these findings brain bleeds, retinal bleeds, and brain 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.640 swelling that were being observed in infants who were either 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:36.200 deceased or were struggling to survive, and he thought that 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.480 maybe these findings could be the result of the bridging 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.640 veins of the brain and eyes being severed by the 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:47.919 acceleration and deceleration of violence shaking. Does anyone know how 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:51.760 this went from a simple hypothesis to a widely or 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:56.840 almost universally accepted but not yet exposed junk science that 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.640 has ruined so many thousands of lives. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.000 I don't think he ever intended it to be that way. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.520 I think he just wanted parents in England to maybe 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.280 stop handling their children so roughly. But he wasn't saying, 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:10.880 oh my god, these things are diagnostic of this. But 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.120 I think it's the difference between the old way that 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.079 medicine operated, Like you know, medical students and doctors were 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.000 taught Hey if you find these things, then the answer 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.400 is x, this is what the patient has. In more 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.480 recent years, there's been a move to what they call 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.240 evidence based medicine, and. 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.239 With that shift came folks who found, as I mentioned earlier, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.480 a growing list of eighty one non traumatic medical conditions 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:35.720 that can cause these findings in addition to traumatic causes 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.400 the car wrecks or even short falls. And increasingly studies 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.120 find that if shaking could be the cause that we should, 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.640 we almost must expect to see some other very specific injuries. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:51.120 Many cases will also have occipital bone samach, the neck bone. 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.640 We now expect to see a spinal injury if we 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.360 can even begin to suspect violence shaking. But before you 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.360 had to know any of this stuff, of about SBS, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.560 shake and baby Singer, we'll call it SBS. Jenny, what 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.040 was your life like and how did you decide to 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:08.280 get involved in childcare. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.400 I come from a middle class family living in the 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.920 Southwest suburbs off of Chicago. I was babysitting since I 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.880 was ten, and I had my daughter at eighteen. But 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:20.520 I was a good mom and I started babysitting so 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:22.560 I could still be with my daughter and I would 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.279 bring her with. I just really have a passion for children. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.520 They just love me, and I just get along with 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.360 them a lot. I get along with them more than adults. 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:33.040 You eventually had a second kid, too, right. 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.320 Yes, I have two children. I have a daughter, Tia, 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.479 she's thirty three, and I have a son, Draven, he's 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:39.080 twenty five. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.600 I understand you are a very involved mom. You participated 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.320 as a room mom at your daughter school. In addition 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.720 to babysitting. You work part time at a library. And 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:49.640 that's how things went for a while until a friend 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.520 of your is another one of the room moms at school, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.279 Gleanne Care, gave you a new opportunity. 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.080 Gleanne wanted to bring in more income, bought a home 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.400 in Romeoville that was a daycare already. She remembered me 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.680 working with children back in the room mom days and 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:06.880 thought of me, so she asked me if i'd work 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:08.800 at the daycare. But I didn't want to leave the 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.599 library because I loved it, so I did both. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.680 And what about the family who we're going to refer 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.119 to as the z family and the infant in this case, Iz, 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.800 From what I understand, you had only known her for 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.479 about the final eight weeks of her nearly four month 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.320 long or short life. But you spent a great deal 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.680 of time with her, feeding her, getting to know her idiosyncrasies. 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:32.960 Yeah, she was very She would cry a lot. She 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.520 seemed like she was in pain. So we went and 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.880 talked to the mom a few times and told her 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.880 maybe she has acid reflox. You should, you know, look 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:42.960 into that and get her what she needs, because she 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.720 was very, very, I would say, touchy, just cried a lot. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.640 I also read from the trial that Glenn had testified 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.200 that he z the baby would often clench her fists 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.720 after she ate, unusual for a baby, right, And it 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.000 was later confirmed that there was evidence that she was 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:01.200 having seizures. But all of these red flags had gone unnoticed. 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.560 In addition to another glaring detail, what. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.400 Was not noticed at the time, even though you know 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.920 the pediatrician visits they had been measuring the head circumference, 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.200 was the head grew at an abnormally fast rate, which 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.320 can be a sign of a chronic subdural hemotoma, meaning 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.200 a bleed in the brain. It's one of the reasons 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.160 why they take those kind of measurements. Brain bleeds are 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.440 not uncommon at birth, and they're not always dangerous, but 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:27.760 they do want to monitor them. 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.640 What was missed by the doctors before and after, and 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.480 was absent a trial as well, was that IS's head 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.520 circumference went from the fiftieth to the ninetieth percentile in 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:38.640 just ten weeks. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.839 You know, our belief is that's the old brain bleed 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.679 probably existed at the time the head was growing too fast. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.320 Eventually, it turned out that these older brain bleeds were 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.600 likely present before Jenny had even met the child, and 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.560 were likely ongoing through the tragic end of her incredibly 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.120 short life, which happened during that sleepy week between Christmas 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.680 and New Year's when the whole world basically grinds to 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.960 a hall. It was December twenty seventh, two thousand and two. 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.800 Yes, I was the only one scheduled to work. Leanne 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:07.680 had to go out of town for Christmas. It was 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.800 a great week. It was the first week ever in 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.280 my life as a single mom of two kids, and 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.120 I paid for everything in cash for Christmas. It was 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:17.920 a very good time in my life. I was about 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.200 thirty four and I was doing well on my own 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:21.840 for once. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.800 And what do you remember from the time you arrived 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.040 at the daycare that day, so I. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.480 Got there and the Ze family came too. She had 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.760 to work, I guess, but we didn't know that at 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.760 the time that the baby was sick. She had a 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.400 fever on Christmas Eve and went into the hospital. I 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.520 wasn't aware of that. She brought me some medicine, said 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:45.520 she was sick, some amoxicillin, the pink stuff, and I 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.280 didn't think anything of it. Babies gets sick all the time. 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:50.960 And it turns out that a maxicillan taken along with 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.960 gas relieve medication can trigger seizures. So there were just 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.480 so many things potentially happening inside this poor little girl, 0:07:57.840 --> 0:07:59.240 So please continue. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.920 Well, the mom was a little bit rushed, so she 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.520 was kind of running in with the kids, and she 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.000 told me to give her this medicine. At one I 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.400 put it in the fridge and she didn't say anything 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.080 else about it. I don't know if it was an 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:17.000 ear infection or cold. So I just took the kids. 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.240 And as I understand it, you had your hands full 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:19.680 that day. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.560 Yeah, and I have two five year olds, a four 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.720 year old, and a three year old all around me. 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.320 Well, yeah, that's a full squad. And as you said 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.920 later to police and repeat it consistently ever since. Is 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.440 that while trying to care for all of these other kids, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:36.640 you had fed iy and put her down for a nap, 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.240 and when she awoke around noon, you set her on 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.360 the couch, made a bottle, and when you returned you 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.440 found that she was struggling to breathe. Now, according to police, 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.360 you never said that you had vigorously shaken her, but 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.440 you said you had given her a slight shake to 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.000 try to rouse her. Then you checked her throat for 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.800 a blockage and gave her a pat on the back. 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.439 And soon her condition worsened. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.760 And I called nine one one. They asked me to 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.720 do CPR, which I did. They came in within minutes 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.720 and they took over and she went off to the hospital. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.319 I had to stay there with the kids. 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.160 So the baby goes to Saint Joseph's Hospital and the 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.120 administer of epinephrine, they do get the heartbeat restored. They 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.960 start doing X rays and the sea scans trying to 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.320 find out what's wrong with the baby, and it is 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:27.079 early on that they find acute, meaning like newer brain bleeds, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:31.160 but they also find chronic, meaning older brain bleeds. And 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.839 I think one of the initial treating doctors said something like, oh, well, 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:35.840 when you see a brain blead like that, you know 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.560 you have to assume it's shaken baby or baby abuse 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.880 or something. They said that the old brain bleed was 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.400 also caused by abuse, even though we don't know anything 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.720 else about it other than there was a brain bleed. 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.880 Right, there was no other information about those older bleeds, 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.880 and as the days passed, the preediatric critical care doctor 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.720 noted some retinal hemorrhage and eventually brain swalling, which just 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.360 confirmed what they believed. While a procedure performed on is 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.120 led findings, it should have again made them question their 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:04.439 conclusions and their resolve. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.040 So they ended up doing a burr whole procedure to 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.280 alleviate some of the pressure in the brain and evacuate 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.560 some of the blood. So we had the imaging showing 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.160 the old brain bleeds, but then that was also confirmed 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.840 by this surgery because they evacuated old blood from the brain, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.400 and they're also seeing evidence of seizures. There's like seizure 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:25.679 activity that they're noting when the baby's asleep and at 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:28.960 some other times there was evidence at least from Jenny 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:31.600 herself and from Gleann Kerr about the cleansing of fists 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.880 and the baby shaking after she ate that perhaps this 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.360 seizure activity was happening before the baby collapsed, and would 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.760 of course give an alternative explanation. But one of the 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.360 doctors who said this must be shaking baby syndrome said, well, 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.720 those seizures were a result of the shaking baby syndrome. 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:46.280 And that's what I think. One of the things that 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.640 made me realize how dangerous this kind of diagnosis is 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.840 is they really are jumping to the conclusion. They say 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.680 they're not trying to diagnose murder, but they are, and 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.480 they're doing it from very very limited findings. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.400 So instead of paying mind to these sides that something 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:01.840 else was clearly going on inside this poor little girl's 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.719 body and had been potentially since birth, the doctors were 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.360 doubling down, sticking to the diagnosis that they had made 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.040 on day one, that they had already relayed to police 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.600 and the Z family on the day I was brought in. 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.160 I called the Z family a few times when I 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.200 got home that day and at least for two to 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.480 three days to find out how she was. They wouldn't respond. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.920 They didn't answer phone calls, voicemails, nothing. 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.760 This episode is underwritten by global law firm Greenberg Trauig 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.839 through its pro bono program. Greenberg Trowig leverages its more 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.080 than twenty six hundred lawyers across forty four offices to 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.280 serve the greater good of our communities and provide equal 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.600 access to justice for all. In the field of criminal justice, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:58.400 Greenberg Trowerg attorneys have exonerated and freedomanded Philadelphia represent numerous 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.079 individuals previously sentenced to life for crimes committed as juveniles 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:06.079 and resentencing hearings, and received the American Bar Associations twenty 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.920 twenty one Exceptional Service Award for Death Penalty Representation for 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.280 their work on five death penalty cases. GT is reimagining 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.080 what big law can be because of a more just world. 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:18.520 Only happens by design. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:27.400 I got a phone call and they asked if I 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.880 could come in for more questioning. I thought I was 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.760 helping them, so I just went in freely without a lawyer. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:34.679 Biggest mistake in my. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.240 Life at this point, with the certainty of most of 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.559 the medical establishment behind them, the lead detective, Kenneth Kroll, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.720 interrogated you and let's face it. He had a clear agenda. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.160 The interview goes in steps, which I found out later 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.120 at the evidentiary hearing when Kenneth Crow explained it. First, 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:55.120 they try to just be your friend, and they told me, 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.240 you know, if you heard her, you could tell us. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:00.480 You'll just have to go to parenting classes. I said, no, 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.240 I did not do anything to her. I helped her. 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.280 And then he said, show me with this bear. So 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:08.760 he gave me a teddy bear and I had to 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.360 show him the steps of everything I did, precautionary wise 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.600 to see what was wrong with her. And then he 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.680 told me I could keep the bear. I don't know 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.600 why I didn't want the bear. Then he leaves me 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.400 in the room. They both do for a long time. 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.880 They do that so you can think about things and 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.560 get stressed. So I sat there and when they came back, 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.360 they told me they talked to a doctor and that 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.320 she had a skull fracture, which she never had a 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.040 skull fracture. They completely lied to me, and I said, 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.240 there's no way she has that. I was with her 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.680 the entire time. She never fell. And I was crying 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.199 by that time because then I felt like they were 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.520 trying to say I did something, and they kept going 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.760 at it and going at it, and I kept crying 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:57.400 and insisting no, and I think they used things that 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.920 I said against me later they tried to turn the 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:04.720 around that I said. So that's how the interrogation went right. 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.040 Not only were they lying to you in order to 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.839 try to extract the false confession, but then they skewed 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:13.360 the innocent things that you had said, in particularly that 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.960 you had given iz eight quote slight shake. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.840 So as you know that Jenny did not confess to 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.840 shaking the baby, even though they tried to treat it 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.440 as a confession in her trial, and the detective noted 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.160 that the demonstration with the bear or the doll or 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.960 whatever it was was a very minor, slight shake. But 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.520 in the grand jury when they were getting Jennifer and dighted, 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.720 they put in evidence that, you know, the kind of 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.600 shaking necessary to hurt a baby like this would be, 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.320 you know, extremely vigorous and progressive shaking. And then they said, 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.960 did Jenny admit that she shook the baby? Answer yes, 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.760 without any reference to the amount of force of the 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:48.480 shake or that it was a very minor shake. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.320 So Jenny, that was February eleventh, two thousand and three, 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.000 when you were indicted for aggravated battery of a child, 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.360 which potentially could put you in prison for sa to 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.560 thirty years, and you spent a long night in jail 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.680 before bonding out, and your family and Cleanne put together 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:10.480 the retainer for your attorney. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.680 So for the next year, I had to take care 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.320 of my children and know that I could go away 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.680 for six to thirty years. So that's why I lived 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.760 my life every day. The library was so supportive of 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.000 me that they paid me for I believe two to 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.600 four months after this happened, but I was not allowed 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.720 to work there because it was a public place. I 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.600 also was told by my son's school, who was also 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:36.800 my daughter's school back in the day, that I was 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.400 not allowed to come on the property anymore. So I 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.360 had to pull them out of school because I was 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.960 on the front page of the town newspapers like I 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:44.720 heard a baby. 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.520 Meanwhile, Iz had been released to the care of her 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.120 parents and some home healthcare workers, but she was never 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:54.480 expected to recover, and she finally passed away tragically on 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.040 November ninth, two thousand and three, and the autopsy was 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.240 performed by a doctor Jeff Harki, who became critical to 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.080 your defense. Actually, later on in the case. 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:08.520 Doctor Harky performs the autopsy, he does brain sectioning, these 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.800 other things, notably, you know, he says he looked for fractures, 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.200 of course, and didn't find any. By that more in time, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.480 they wouldn't have been any bruising to look forward, because 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.880 it's almost a year after the baby first collapsed. 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.120 Right, Instead of relying on a fuller picture of the 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.240 child's health from earlier medical records and the CT scans 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:28.840 and radiology from December twenty seven, two thousand and two, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.680 a lot of his autopsy report relied on the reports 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:36.520 of the state's eventual star witness at trial, doctor Emily Flaherty. 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.200 And so eventually he just essentially adopts those findings that 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.960 it was shaking baby Siner more abusive head trauma. Another 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.360 critical piece that I really can't get out of my 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.480 mind is despite doctor Flaherty knowing of the old brain 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.400 bleed the chronics of berylhematoma, she never mentions that in 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:56.680 her report to the corner. It's obviously a critically important 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.400 issue of the case. I mean, she's not supposed to 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.600 be writing a report saying the things that support what 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.680 she thinks because she thinks of shake a baby syndrome. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.040 She's supposed to put in all the important medical findings, 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.600 but she left that out and as a result, Harkey 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.040 didn't know about it, and so he calls it a homicide. 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:13.679 He has since said, if I knew there was this 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.800 old bring blead, I would not have called it a homicide. 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.639 Right to his credit, he was skeptical of the SBS 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.640 hypothesis even back then, but based on Flarerty's selective reporting 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.400 of IS's condition, he wrote in his autopsy report, quote 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.720 multiple organ failure due to anoxic ischemic injuries due to 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:35.359 abusive head trauma unquote or AHT, and he continued on, 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:40.320 quote AHT occurred ten to eleven months prior unquote. So 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.680 I mean, looking at IS's body, which had lived, healed 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.560 and then died, how the world does he know of 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.560 the condition of the body ten to eleven months earlier. 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.919 He knows it based on doctor Flaherty's report. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.640 He also noted no external injuries or trauma, as did 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.639 doctor Flaherty, which should have been an important red flag. 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.919 Experts like doctor Flaherty do not think that's important They 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.640 literally do not think it's important as to whether there 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.280 is bruising or even a red mark on a baby 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.440 who they say is shaken with such force that passerbys 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.359 would know that serious injury was being done to the child. 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:22.000 They think it doesn't even leave a mark, but have 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.240 no explanation for the common sense question of well why 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:25.800 wouldn't it. 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.960 I mean, come on, we're talking about an adult aggressively 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.960 gripping and shaking a child. Anyone would expect to see 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.879 some bruising, probably some significant bruising at the site of 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.479 the alleged gripping. Right. Nevertheless, they had their declaration that 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.800 this was a homicide and wrenched up the charge to 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.760 first degree murder. Oh my god. In April of two 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.840 thousand and four, do you remember when you got that news, Jenny. 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.480 I was making breakfast for my children, trying to live 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.040 a normal life. I was working at Target by this time, 0:18:57.880 --> 0:18:59.760 and got a call from my lawyer. 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.520 Chuck Chuck Is Charles Brett's your trial attorney. 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:04.720 I was sitting in my kitchen with my kids trying 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.480 to eat breakfast when you call me. So I had 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.360 to absorb all that and not react because my kids 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.120 were there. And I was trying to just have them 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.919 live a normal life, even though I was terrified. 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.720 So you surrendered yourself and your parents bonded you out. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.120 As trial approached in February of two thousand and five, 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:22.960 and rather than going in front of a jury, you 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:27.120 chose to have your case heard by Judge Carla Alessio polychondriotes. Now, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.080 what made you opt for a bench trial over a jury? 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.040 Most lawyers are almost always opposed to that. 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.800 If you pull people off the street, they're not going 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.600 to understand all this medical the brain bleeds, the colors. 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.880 I just didn't feel they would comprehend all of that. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.159 And I've thought a judge was smarter and wiser and 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.560 would understand the medical facts, because I thought that's what 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.399 they needed to focus on here. But they didn't in 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:52.960 my opinion. 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.240 So you know, they presented the family members of Isazi, 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.560 they presented some of the treating physicians. They presented the 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:06.520 testimony of Detective Kroll, who put in this supposed confession. 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.399 Right the interrogation in which she said quote slight shake, 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:13.960 which was good enough for their trickery at the grand 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.760 jury to get an indictment. But even Detective Kroll had 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.480 written in his report that Jenny never confessed to shaking 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:21.400 the baby. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.240 But the most important thing they presented was doctor Flaherty. 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:27.320 I'm K. 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.080