Defense For Mansfield Woman Accused In Child's Death Attacks State Testimony

By DAVID OWENSVERNON — — The defense for a woman arrested in the death of her child continued on Friday to attack the existence of "shaken baby syndrome" with testimony by a neurosurgeon and a forensic pathologist.

Suzanne Listro, 44, of Mansfield, is charged with manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor in connection with the death of Michael Brown Jr., a 7-month-old boy placed in Listro's home by the state Department of Children and Families.

The boy died of "blunt traumatic head injury" May 19, 2008. Listro said the boy fell 26 inches from a bed to a linoleum floor. The state contends that the boy's injuries are not consistent with such a fall and that Listro caused the head trauma. State witnesses have said the injuries could have resulted from shaking the baby.

Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a neurosurgeon from Maryland, and Dr. Janice Ophoven, a forensic pathologist from Minnesota, testified that Michael was medically fragile because of a prior injury that caused him to suffer from a chronic subdural hematoma, or bleeding on the brain. When Michael fell from the bed, the two experts hired by the defense argued, it proved catastrophic.

Most so-called short falls are not fatal for children, and Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, the state's chief medical examiner, testified that the injuries Michael suffered were not consistent with such a fall. Also, the subdural hematoma had healed, the state's medical witnesses said.

Uscinski testified Friday that it had not healed because the blood removed from Michael's head during treatment May 19, 2008, was liquid. That means it was an old wound, he said. Blood in old subdural hematomas liquefies, Uscinski said.

Because it was an old injury and not yet healed, a short fall from the bed to the floor cannot be ruled out as the cause of Michael's death, Uscinski said.

Uscinski, who charges $10,000 a day to testify in trials and Ophoven, who charges $4,000, said shaken baby syndrome does not exist because it is impossible for an adult to injure a child's brain by shaking him.