Coon Valley father charged with indenting infant daughter’s skull

LA CROSSE, WI — A Coon Valley father is charged with child abuse for allegedly denting his 8-month old baby girl’s skull.

21-year old Robert Schmidt appeared in court on Thursday.

The following details are from his criminal complaint.

Employees at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center alerted authorities to the baby’s injuries on Sunday, saying she had a skull fracture and was bleeding in the back of the brain.

A social worker at Gundersen advised that she and the doctors believed that something had hit the baby on the head.

Authorities got in touch with the baby’s parents, including Schmidt.

21040822

His initial story was that the baby had rolled over in her bassinet and hit her head on the side of it.  The baby’s mother did not recall any indent before she left for work, after the baby was pulled from the bassinet.

A doctor confirmed that the indent was not consistent with that story.

Schmidt then suggested the injury could have come from the table next to their bed when he picked the baby up to get out of bed.

Again, doctors said it would require a great amount of force necessary to crack the baby’s skull.

After several minutes of defending his story, Schmidt began to provide different accounts of what happened to his daughter.

Eventually, Schmidt stated that he hit the baby in the forehead with his elbow.

According to the complaint, “he stated he laid the baby on the bed next to him and rolled over and tried to go to sleep.  The baby continued to fuss so he rolled over angrily to check on her.  He stated as he flung his body over his elbow struck the baby in the forehead and caused the indentation.  He stated he struck her hard.  He stated he did not intentionally hurt her.”

Doctors do not expect the child to have any permanent brain damage.

Schmidt is also charged with obstructing an officer and two counts of misdemeanor bail jumping.