BOUNTIFUL, Utah — A Bountiful man faces a felony charge of child abuse after staff members at American Fork Hospital discovered a 7-month-old girl had suffered multiple injuries last week.
According to a probable cause statement, 27-year-old Maximiliano H. Dotta told investigators he fed the infant girl and changed her diaper around midnight on November 12.
"During the process, [Dotta] admitted to picking her up by both arms from the crib hard enough that it could have broken both her arms. Dotta said that he tried to change her dirty diaper by she was squirming more than usual," the probable cause statement says. "Dotta said he was tired and frustrated so he twisted her ankle to get her to stop moving."
Dotta also admitted to pinching the infant girl's ears, causing one of them to bleed from a cut made with his fingernail, biting the girl's cheek and putting the girl back in her crib with enough force to break her leg against the crib, the statement says.
The next morning, the infant girl's mother discovered swelling and bruising on the girl, and noted that she "was fussier than normal and not moving the left arm or right leg, and that the swelling was getting worse," the statement says. "[The mother] told staff that [Dotta] drove her and baby girl to her sister's house in Vineyard Utah, and then [the mother]'s sister drove [the mother] and baby girl to American Fork Hospital so baby girl could be evaluated."
American Fork Hospital staff members found bruising on the infant girl's right cheek and right jaw, cuts on the right earlobe with multiple scabs, a significantly dislocated right elbow, a broken upper left arm, and multiple fractures of the lower right leg.
All of the girl's injuries "suggest non-accidental trauma," the statement says.
Dotta has been booked into the Davis County Jail, where a judge ordered him to be held without bail.
The child abuse charge Dotta faces is a second-degree felony.
