Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo set a $25,000 cash bail for the temporary liberty of the father during the hearing yesterday.
The 24-year old defendant was represented by Chief Public Defender Adam Hardwicke while Assistant Attorney General George Hasselback represented the government.
Govendo set the preliminary hearing for Aug. 31 and the arraignment for Sept. 7.
The Attorney General’s Office filed two separate counts of assault and battery and two separate counts of child abuse against the defendant on Aug. 20. 2009.
In his affidavit, Police Officer Vincente S. Mareham said the Department of Public Safety was contacted by the Division of Youth Services on May 1, 2008 regarding a complaint of child abuse.
Mareham said the victim’s mother received a call from the victim’s teacher who reported that the child had some suspicious bruising on her arm and foot.
Mareham said the child later told her mother that she got the bruises when the defendant put her in the freezer because she was “naughty.”
On July 28, 2008, the victim’s mother noticed severe bruising on the child’s buttocks as she was dressing her.
When asked, the child told her mother that the defendant bit her because she was playing with a water bucket inside the house.
Mareham said children can suffocate very quickly when trapped within a chest freezer, and biting a child on her buttocks with severity is beyond any reasonable corporal punishment for a child.
Mareham said the victim is a household member and therefore is charged for domestic violence crimes.
The defendant was arrested on Friday evening pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by Govendo on the same day.
