Archbald police charge Wilkes-Barre man with injuring baby

Nov. 30—A Luzerne County man hit his 10-week-old son three times in the face with his hand at a home in Archbald, leaving the baby with multiple brain injuries and bruising to his eyes, borough police said.

Juriyah Westberry, 23, Wilkes-Barre, was held in the Lackawanna County Prison on $500,000 bail after his arrest Thursday on multiple counts of aggravated assault of a victim less than 13 and other charges.

Borough police accused Westberry of striking his infant in the face on the morning of Nov. 17 at the Thomas Street home of relatives in Archbald's Eynon section, where investigators said they were living temporarily.

The victim, who was born prematurely on Aug. 31, was airlifted to Geisinger Janet Weiss Children's Hospital in Danville for treatment Thursday after a follow-up CT scan revealed serious brain hemorrhaging, police said.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Officer Jamie Nolan-Trently, Westberry's arrest followed his admission during an interview at police headquarters that he hit the baby after offering other versions of how the child was injured that he acknowledged were incorrect.

In the interview, Westberry told police he was awakened by his son's crying around 1 or 2 a.m. on Nov. 17, but the baby continued to scream even after he was changed and fed.

Westberry said he removed the infant from his bassinet and placed him in his bed, where he was calm for about five minutes before he started screaming again.

Westberry told Nolan-Trently he then hit the baby three times with the palm of his hand, twice between his eyes on top of his nose and the third time a little higher on his forehead, the complaint said. When the baby continued to cry, Westberry said he placed child back in the bassinet, where he eventually fell asleep.

Westberry told police he noticed bruising around the baby's eyes when the child woke up later that morning, the complaint said.

Nolan-Trently opened her investigation Nov. 22 after a detective in Ocean County, New Jersey, forwarded her a photo of the infant that depicted the bruises, which were said to be from a baby monitor camera falling onto the infant's face. The detective obtained the photo during an investigation involving a family member of Westberry, the complaint said.

Nolan-Trently said the bruising in the photo, which was sent a day earlier to the county Office of Youth and Family Services, did not appear to be consistent with a falling camera.

According to the complaint, Westberry told an OYFS caseworker who went to the Thomas Street residence Nov. 21 that the baby's injuries happened when Westberry's uncle knocked the camera off the edge of the bassinet and it fell onto the infant.

The father told the caseworker he took the baby to Lehigh Valley Hospital — Dickson City on Nov. 20 for leakage coming out of his eyes and he was diagnosed with conjunctivitis, the complaint said.

Westberry repeated that explanation for the injuries when initially interviewed by Nolan-Trently on Nov. 22 but changed his story when the officer told him the uncle denied knocking over the camera, police said.

Westberry then told Nolan-Trently he was holding the infant with one arm when the baby slipped and fell forward, striking his face on the bassinet railing.

Police charged Westberry with three counts each of aggravated assault of a victim less than 13, aggravated assault of a victim less than 6, recklessly endangering another person and simple assault.

Magisterial District Judge George Seig, who ordered the suspect jailed when he could not post bail, set his preliminary hearing for Dec. 12.

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9132