SKOWHEGAN — A New Hampshire man charged with seriously injuring a 2-year-old girl in an assault in October at Indian Ridge apartments in Skowhegan remains held on $50,000 cash bail, the district attorney said Monday.
Cody Alexander Swanson, 25, of Concord, New Hampshire, is charged with aggravated assault in the alleged Oct. 11 attack, in which the child was discovered to have multiple bruises on much of her body.
The charge against Swanson is a class B felony because it is alleged to have caused bodily injuries that “created a substantial risk of death” or an extended period of recovery, according to court documents. The crime is punishable with a conviction by up to 10 years in the state prison.
Swanson has been moved from the Somerset County Jail to the Knox County Jail in Rockland, a jail official in East Madison said Monday.
James Ross, chief deputy at the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, said Swanson was moved in a one-for-one swap at the request of the Knox County Jail.
District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Monday that Swanson has a dispositional hearing set for Jan. 30 in court in Skowhegan. The jury trial schedule is set to begin in February.
The Somerset County Regional Communications Center received a 911 emergency call from Swanson just after 7 p.m. Oct. 11, saying that the little girl had fallen downstairs at the apartment.
The girl’s mother then got on the phone to tell dispatchers that she feared the child’s neck was broken, but still stuck to the story that the girl had fallen down stairs. That story changed as police investigated the incident.
The child was carried out to Emergency Medical Services staff from Redington-Fairview General Hospital “unconscious and in her mother’s arms,” according to the court documents. The girl “had bruises all over.” A physician’s assistant told her mother that the child also suffered from bilateral pneumonia.
She was taken to the Skowhegan hospital, then by LifeFlight helicopter to a Portland hospital.
“There was large bruising on the forehead of the 2-year-old, and the child had multiple injuries all over (her) body from previous incidents,” Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said the following day.
The 2-year-old was in stable condition by that night, according to Bucknam. The girl’s mother was not injured. Skowhegan Detective Michael Bachelder, along with Maine State Police Detectives Christopher Crawford and Ryan Brockway and Detective Sgt. Jason Richards, investigated the case.
The girl’s mother later told investigators that the story of her falling down stairs was not true and that she was scared, court documents show. She said Swanson had been beating her daughter, who was badly injured two weeks earlier.
The mother told police that Swanson held her daughter by the ponytail and would smack her bottom. She said Swanson got annoyed when the child whined. The mother said she would leave the room during the beatings and burn herself with lit cigarettes.
On Oct. 11, the girl’s mother told police that she heard a loud slap and Swanson yelling, “Wake up. Wake up.” That’s when they called 911. She said she also saw Swanson shaking the child before she heard the slap.
Swanson has two previous convictions on class D domestic violence assault charges in Maine since 2016. He was also convicted of disorderly conduct and violating conditions of release in 2016.
Before moving to Maine, Swanson was arrested four times in New Hampshire during June and July 2014 on various charges that did not include assault. In those cases, he was charged with trespassing, consuming alcohol on public property, breaching bail conditions and giving a false report to an officer. Law officers reported they found an unused hypodermic needle in his pocket, indicative of heroin use.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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