SBS: Pennsylvania: Jamel Lee Billups acquitted

JIM HOOK Senior writer

A Chambersburg man was acquitted Friday of charges that he shook his 3-month-old daughter.
Jamel Lee Billups, 32, Chambersburg, mouthed a "thank you" to jurors after the verdict was read, and untucked the shirttail of his blue dress shirt.
"Thank you," he said quietly, looking upwards.
"I'm very happy," said Jacqueline Rosario, mother of the child Leiana, now 18-months-old. "He gets to come home to his kids. We'll be a family for the weekend. He hasn't seen them in 14 months."
The couple also has a 3-year-old daughter.
After hearing six days of medical testimony in Franklin County Court, the jury deliberated for two hours during lunchtime on Friday and had enough reasonable doubt they found Billups not guilty of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Billups has maintained his innocence from the beginning, according to Rosario and Defense Attorney Christopher Basner of Newport.
Billups' defense relied on complex testimony from a medical expert and recent medical research.
Defense witness Dr. Patrick Barnes, a pediatric neuroradiologist at Stanford University, testified that Leiana suffered brain damage from health conditions that mimic child abuse.
Leiana's doctors said that her "constellation of injuries" had no other explanation than child abuse, according to Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Lauren Sulcove. In her closing argument she singled out injuries to ligaments at the back of the child's neck and swelling at the back of her head.
"You've heard the old saying: If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and swims like a duck, it must be a duck,'" Sulcove addressed the jury. "It's your job to call it what it is."
Sulcove maintained that Billups' testimony was not credible.
"He changes the facts every time he testifies," she said. "There's a bit of truth in every lie. You have to listen carefully."
Sulcove said Billups' prior conviction for robbery in New York nine years ago is evidence of his deception.
Judge Shawn Meyers instructed the jury that Billups' conviction must be used only to judge his credibility and not his innocence or guilt.
"There was a tragedy that happened on Oct. 19(, 2009); a young child suffered a stroke," said defense attorney Mark Freeman of West Conshohocken.
The girl's brain damage resulted from a rare disorder known as cerebral venous thrombosis, according to defense witnesses. The 16 fractures to her front ribs were the result of a likely deficiency of vitamin D at her birth. A severe lack of the vitamin is linked to congenital rickets, or fragile bones.
Investigators "had the blinders on" after seeing her condition, Freeman told the jury. They failed to follow up on low levels of Protein S, an indication of venous thrombosis. There were no signs of external trauma, classic signs of shaken baby syndrome.
"Sometimes you see what you're looking for," Freeman said. "The entire case is based on the presumption of trauma."
Sulcove countered: Leiana is "the one time on the planet" where venous thrombosis and bone fragility have come together. Abused children do not always have visual injuries.
Leiana, as of her last test in May could not see, will have difficulty walking and may be mentally retarded, Sulcove said.
Freeman, who specializes in elder law, appeared in his first criminal trial. Freeman said he previously researched false child abuse.
"A personal friend had almost the identical thing happen to him," Freeman said after the trial. "Child abuse is a horrible thing. Charging parents is a pretty horrible thing too. The real tragedy is they didn't have any defense at the dependency hearing."
But when Franklin County Children and Youth Department heard about Billups' defense expert Barnes, they quickly returned the two girls to Rosario, Freeman said.
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_16889671

Child Abuse: Pennsylvania: Billups

FRANKLIN COUNTY -- After hearing from doctors about her brain injuries for nearly a week, a Franklin County jury saw a smiling and squealing Leiana Billups in person on Thursday. Now nearly 18 months old, the apparently content little girl was carried into Judge Shawn Meyers' courtroom by her mother, Jacqueline Rosario, during the afternoon trial session.
Most of the jurors smiled widely at the small child, who was allegedly shaken by her father when she was 3 months old.
Both sides have now presented their evidence, and only closing arguments remain before the jury will be sent to deliberate whether Jamel Lee Billups was responsible for his daughter's permanent brain damage.
The trial was expected to resume at 8:30 a.m. today, beginning with the defense's closing arguments. Meyers told the jury that he will instruct them to begin deliberating after both sides have finished, probably by lunchtime.
Billups, 32, Chambersburg, is charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He denies ever physically harming his daughter.
A doctor in California told the jury via teleconference Thursday he believes the baby suffered from a combination of health conditions that "mimic child abuse." Defense witness Dr. Patrick Barnes, a pediatric neuroradiologist at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University, appeared live on a television in front of the jury box.
Having reviewed Leiana's medical history and test results,
Barnes said he concluded the blood on her brain and retinal bleeding were the result of a stroke-causing disorder called cerebral venous thrombosis. According to previous testimony by other doctors, CVT is a rare disorder not known to cause the type of brain bleeding or the retinal bleeding seen in Leiana. But Barnes said recent advances in medical technology and research show this is not true.
During her cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Sulcove asked Barnes if he would agree that CVT is very rare.
"Ten years ago, I would have agreed with that. Now I would not agree," he said. "It is much more common than we thought, especially in infants."
Expert witnesses for both sides have testified that Leiana has tested deficient for an anti-clotting agent called "protein S." Barnes testified that lack of the protein is linked to the appearance of CVT.
Barnes' testimony also addressed the appearance of 16 rib fractures found in X-rays taken when the girl was 3 months old.
Doctors testifying for the prosecution said an X-ray taken when she was 11 days old showed no fractures, proving the injuries had occurred thereafter. The healing fractures were estimated at between four and eight weeks old.
A vitamin D deficiency found in Leiana's mother indicates that the baby was likely deficient when she was born, Barnes said. A severe lack of the vitamin has been linked to a "bone fragility disorder" called congenital rickets.
Barnes testified that the fractures may have actually occurred during Leiana's birth, but were too small to appear in a standard X-ray when she was only days old. He also pointed out that the fractures were in the front portion of the baby's ribs, not in the back as normally occurs in incidents of "shaken baby syndrome."
Sulcove asked Barnes if he was aware of any other case where a baby was diagnosed with CVT and a bone fragility disorder in conjunction with the same type of brain and retinal bleeding as Leiana.
"Not as of yet, that I know of," he said.
Asked how many times this year he had testified in a child abuse trial on behalf of the defense, Barnes said it had been "at least once a month."
Sulcove pointed out that a number of doctors who had helped treat the baby all determined the cause of her problems to be child abuse.
"So they're wrong and you're right, even though you never met Leiana Billups?" she asked him.
"That is correct," Barnes said.
His testimony lasted all morning, and Meyers called a lunch recess shortly after noon. When the trial reconvened, the jury was introduced to Leiana.
According to testimony Wednesday, Leiana and her toddler-age older sister have both been living at home with their mother since February 2010.
After the baby's appearance, Chambersburg Police Detective Sgt. Dianne Kelso, who testified Monday, was called back to the witness stand to provide a rebuttal to statements made by Billups and Rosario during their testimonies Wednesday.
Both had told the jury that Leiana's older sister, then 2 years old, was taken from them at Chambersburg Hospital on Oct. 19, 2009. They said they went to the police station that evening under the impression that they would get their older daughter back.
Kelso testified Thursday that she spoke with the couple at the hospital, telling them that the child had been taken as a matter of standard protocol and that it would not be up to police to return her.
After Kelso stepped down, Billups and Rosario were called back to the stand by the defense. Both said they were told that they would get the girl back after they gave a statement to police. Billups said he was "coerced."
During cross-examination, Sulcove asked him if he was otherwise reluctant to speak with police because he had "something to hide." His response was heated.
"Are you serious? Are you serious? No is the answer," Billups said.
Before he adjourned court shortly before 3 p.m., Meyers instructed the jury to hold off on making any decisions about the case and to refrain from researching any of the complex medical information that had been presented.
"You need to continue to honor your oath," he said.
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_16880785

SBS: Pennsylavania: Jamel Lee Billups

JIM TUTTLE

A Chambersburg man accused of shaking his infant daughter until she suffered brain injury last October told police that he was always "very delicate" with his children.
A jury watched a video Tuesday of Jamel Lee Billups, 32, being interviewed by a detective on the day his daughter was flown to Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Chambersburg police Detective William Frisby Jr., who conducted the interview, was the last witness to testify Tuesday in the Billups trial. The prosecution has now called all its witnesses, and the defense is expected to begin presenting its case this morning.
"I promise I won't use any big words or mention any medical lingo," Frisby said to the jury as he approached the witness stand.
In that respect, his testimony was an exception. The other two witnesses heard Tuesday were both doctors who discussed Leiana Trina Billups' brain damage and other physical problems in great detail.
Frisby said he was called in to interview Billups on Oct. 19, 2009 after Chambersburg Hospital notified police about the baby's injuries. The taped interview was played for the jury.
In the video, Billups told Frisby that his daughter had been acting healthy all day, until the afternoon when she awoke from her nap crying. He described her as "tensed up" and arching her back, and said she didn't seem to be breathing normally.
"It just wasn't right," he said in the video.
Using a doll to demonstrate, Billups showed Frisby how he picked up and held his daughter after she began crying. He also re-enacted how he tried to get a response from her using what he called a "wake-up tap" on her face.
"That's the most trauma to the head that I did today, or that I would do to her," he said in the video.
During the interview, Billups described the way he handles his children as "very delicate."
"I love both my kids very much," he said.
Defense attorney Christopher Basner asked Frisby during cross examination if he would agree that Billup's account of the Oct. 19, 2009 has remained consistent. Frisby said he agreed.
Dr. Mark Dias, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, was the first witness to testify Tuesday. He told the jury that, based on his expert opinion, the baby suffered permanent brain damage as the result of being shaken violently.
He said possible effects of the baby's brain damage include lasting vision problems, stiffness and difficulty moving her limbs, mental retardation and cognitive impairment.
"We don't know the extent, but I can virtually guarantee you that she will have some problems," Dias said.
According to testimony, testing indicated that Billups' daughter suffered 16 rib fractures between four and six weeks prior to suffering head injury, brain hemorrhaging and extensive retinal bleeding consistent with a shaking event
Billups is charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. His defense team contends that the infant's brain bleeding and other problems were the result of a somewhat rare type of stroke called cerebral venous thrombosis.
In his testimony, Dias used a traffic analogy to explain the workings of blood vessels in the head. He compared clotting, also called thrombosis, to car wrecks that disrupt the flow of traffic.
Dias testified that, in his experience and according to the literature he has read on the matter, there is no evidence that CVT "causes a catastrophic loss of consciousness and disorderly breathing," he said.
During cross examination, defense attorney Mark Freeman referred to a scholarly article written by another doctor who contends that the level of force required to cause retinal bleeding by shaking is "biomechanically improbable."
Dias said he disagreed with the statement, and that "a minority of people" in his field would agree with it.
"You're picking one person's point of view, which is fine," Dias said to the lawyer. "That's your job."
The doctor said tests for thrombosis were performed on the baby weeks after she was first brought to the hospital. "Not only did we find no evidence (of thrombosis), we also found evidence of what we would expect with abusive head trauma," Dias said.
At one point during his the cross examination, Freeman asked Dias if he was a radiologist.
"No, I'm a neurosurgeon," Dias replied.
Dr. Arabinda Choudhary, director of pediatric neuroradiology at Hershey, also testified Tuesday that the baby had blood on her brain and retinal hemorrhages, as well as apparent brain swelling and bruising.
He showed the jury MRI images that he said showed Leiana's damaged brain. The blue and white cross-sectional views of the baby's head showed noticeable differences between the left and right sides.
He said that "based on (his) training and experience," the was "no evidence of thrombosis" in the baby's scans. He showed the jury images of a normal adult brain alongside images of the same brain with thrombosis, and explained the differences.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Sulcove said she will formally rest her case against Billups first thing today. The defense is expected to call its first expert witness, a doctor, about 9 a.m
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_16861375