Felony abuse charges for scalded child

I would like to try and find the resident status of this guy. It's SF area though and you know what that means.


(04-29) 20:19 PDT Hayward -- A Hayward man didn't call 911 after he intentionally dipped his girlfriend's 16-month-old son in scalding water, inflicting critical burns to 70 percent of his body and causing his skin to peel away, according to police.

Instead, 20-year-old Christian Perez phoned his sister and her husband, police said Tuesday. They picked him and the child up in their car.

But they, too, failed to immediately summon authorities.

During the next two hours, police say, the trio drove the toddler several miles across Hayward to a Walgreen's drugstore, bought ointment off the shelf and tried to apply it on the child.

They allegedly called relatives in Mexico to ask for advice, and tried to put the injured boy to bed at the sister's home.

Finally, at 1 p.m. Thursday, while driving around again, Perez called 911 after the child began having seizures and his sister told him he was going to die, Hayward police Lt. Chris Orrey said.

The boy, whose name is not being released, was rushed to Children's Hospital Oakland in an ambulance and was later transferred to Shriners Hospital in Sacramento, where on Tuesday he remained in critical condition.

Alameda County prosecutors charged Perez with felony counts of child abuse, child endangerment, mayhem and torture.

His sister, Patricia Perez, 21, and her husband, Jose Gamez, 22, face felony child endangerment charges.

"If you look at the pictures," Orrey said, "it becomes clear that this baby didn't need ointment. This baby needed emergency medical care."

Christian Perez's attorney, LeRue Grim, called the police account inaccurate. He said Perez was running bathwater for his girlfriend's son, and not paying careful attention, when someone else in his building used cold water - thus making Perez's water hotter.

Perez wanted to take the child to a hospital but was instructed not to over the telephone by his girlfriend, Grim said.

The lawyer said his client, a gas station cashier with a minor criminal record, had no experience caring for children.

Orrey said, "The burn is from the midsection down, as if the baby was placed in water. Our medical expert (at Children's Hospital) said the suspect held the baby down in scalding hot water."

Orrey said the three suspects, who became uncooperative during their interviews with police, said they didn't seek treatment partly because they didn't have insurance.

Perez telephoned the child's 18-year-old mother at work during the ordeal, Orrey said, but downplayed the seriousness of the burns.

"According to the medical professionals, the baby would have been in extreme agony for about an hour," Orrey said, "and then likely went into shock."

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 10DRSV.DTL