A Beaver Meadows man was sentenced to jail time Monday for injuring his 5-month-old son, who suffered multiple fractures, including a fractured femur, in a 2021 incident.

Brandon Gombert, 29, was sentenced to 6-23 months in the Carbon County Correctional Facility, followed by one year of probation.

Gombert is also required to complete 100 hours of community service, submit to a blood sample within 60 days at the Carbon County Correctional Facility, attend anger management and parenting classes, and have no contact with the victim or any individuals under the age of 18 during his sentence.

He pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a third-degree felony, as part of a negotiated plea agreement late last year.

Background

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Trooper Richard Walck of the Pennsylvania State Police Troop N —Hazleton Criminal Investigation Unit, police were dispatched to the hospital in September 2021, where Gombert told them he was changing the victim’s diaper that morning and felt a “grinding” in the baby’s leg and said the baby wasn’t moving his leg like normal. The child had an abrasion near his eye, which the mother said happened when he bumped his head while sitting in the “saucer/bouncer.”

The mother said she awoke at 5 a.m. and fed the baby and changed his diaper. She said everything with the baby was normal at the time.

At 7:30 a.m., she placed the baby in the pack-and-play and went to work while Gombert and her 8-year-old daughter were home. At 10 a.m. she said Gombert called because something was wrong with the baby’s leg. The mother told Gombert to contact the pediatrician, who met Gombert and the baby at the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton.

Walck asked the mother how she believed the baby was injured, and the only thing she could think of was the “antique” crib the baby sleeps in, as several times in the past, he has put his arm through the slats and became stuck.

Gombert said the baby fell back asleep shortly after his wife left the house, and he and his stepdaughter were downstairs in the basement doing laundry when he heard the baby crying upstairs. He said he came upstairs, picked up the baby and sat with him on the couch.

Gombert said the baby fell back asleep for about 15 minutes. When the baby awoke, Gombert changed his diaper and noticed something wrong with the baby’s leg, as he “felt and heard something grinding.”

Walck asked Gombert how he believed the baby’s leg was fractured, and he said when the baby was sleeping in the crib, he sometimes became stuck between the bars.

Gombert said the baby doesn’t usually show signs of pain, but that three weeks ago, he had an “ear infection” and they only realized it when they saw some blood coming from his ear and had him checked by a doctor.

When Walck asked the doctor if the injuries could have occurred from the baby “being stuck between the slats of the crib,” the doctor said that a 5-month-old baby would not be strong enough to break its own bones like that.

The doctor said that the baby also had an X-ray done shortly after birth and no fractures were observed at that time. The doctor said the fractures could only have been caused by some type of blunt force trauma. The baby was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for further treatment.

On Sept. 16, 2021, Walck interviewed a Carbon County caseworker who instituted a safety plan for the parents to only have supervised contact with the baby. She said the baby’s stepsister said she saw Gombert break the baby’s leg.

A “no contact” order was put in place and the children were placed with the maternal grandparents.

A doctor of Child Protective Medicine, LVH-Cedar Crest said the baby had multiple other fractures in various stages of healing, including fractures of the collarbone, shoulder and right leg.

Police said the acute femur fracture and facial bruising occurred while in the father’s care.