FATHER TO TESTIFY IN ADOPTED SON'S DEATH

Author: DEBORAH COOMBE

A Brick Township man pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge he failed to report signs his adopted son was being abused and agreed to testify against his wife, who is charged with the 3-year-old's murder.

Joseph Golebieski, 38, of Midpark Drive told Superior Court Judge James N. Citta in Toms River that for weeks he saw bruises on Kyle Golebieski, and he failed to get the boy medical help, to intervene or to report the abuse.

Kathleen Kelly Golebieski, 38, is charged with causing the boy's death by beating him on the head with some kind of object. An autopsy revealed injuries in various stages of healing. Mrs. Golebieski summoned police to her home 2:42 p.m. last July 30. Police called an ambulance, which took the unconscious boy to the trauma unit at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune. He died the next morning without gaining consciousness.

Golebieski pleaded guilty to second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. His plea bargain calls for him to be sentenced as a third-degree offender and face a presumed four-year sentence.

Kyle and his younger brother were adopted from Honduras in 1992. Ryan Golebieski, a year younger than Kyle, showed no signs of abuse, police said.

About three weeks before Kyle died, the famiy moved to Brick Township from Shrewsbury, where neighbors had reported abuse of the boy three times to the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), the last time being last June.

Police were told by the Golebieskis' Brick Township neighbors that people had seen Mrs. Golebieski hit the boy on a street near her home about a week before the boy died and threatened to call police if she did not stop.