COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) -A Coldwater man was arraigned on three child abuse charges last Friday following a Coldwater Police Department investigation.
20-year-old Jeffrey Wendell Ledford is facing one count of first degree child abuse as well as two second degree counts.
According to court documents, the alleged incidents took place between March 18 and March 25, 2019.
Coldwater Police say the investigation began shortly after midnight March 26 after Ledford’s five-week-old baby was taken to the emergency department at ProMedica Coldwater Regional Hospital with unexplained head trauma. The boy was flown to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo by West Michigan Air Care, where he was treated in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Director Mark Bartell said, “We assembled a team of officers to work on this case the night we received the call.” Bartell says the child was recently discharged from the hospital. He added the information they got from the parents that first night did not explain the severity of the baby’s head injuries.
Bartell says a case like this tends to be complicated, and it takes time to gather and analyze all of the evidence.
The Coldwater Fire Department and LifeCare Ambulance responded to an apartment complex on Coldwater’s east side, where medics performed CPR and transported the baby to ProMedica.
A warrant for Ledford’s arrest was issued last Thursday. The total bond from the three cases is $200,000. Ledford is scheduled to appear for a Branch County District Court probable cause hearing on April 30, 2019. A preliminary examination has been scheduled for May 7.
