Hello, this all happened on Thursday, December 9, 2010. My boyfriend was home alone with our daughter. They fell asleep on the bed and he awoke to her screaming and crying. He had accidentally rolled over onto her left leg. I took her to her pediatrician where he sent us to the radiologist. They didn't find anything wrong. Took her back home where she was crying for 3 hours. The after hour nurse told me to take her to the ER. Ended up taking her there and then they found out that she has a broken femur and broken tibia bone. Now CPS is involved. Could there be any criminal charges pressed against Myla's father (my boyfriend)? Also, how much will it cost to get a lawyer involved? How long will this process possibly take until our lives are back to normal? And will Ryan end up going to jail? We're supposed to talk to the Care Team this Thursday at the hospital where the ER doctors will say if it could be an accident or not. Then the CPS worker is supposed to talk to the detective in this case, too.

Thanks!

Shana

How old is the child?

The femur is one of the heaviest, thickest, hardest to break of all the bones in the body. An adult simpley rolling over on a child's leg would be HIGHLY unlikely to break such a bone, especially if on the cushion of a mattress, except POSSIBLY a new born with some other underlying medical condition - otherwise it generally takes a blow of substantial force to break it - which is why CPS was contacted, because the doctors may not be buying the rolling over on the leg story.

Could there be criminal charges? Sure there could. If there are, he needs to retain an attorney immediately, or, if arrested, to plead not guilty and ask for a public defender if he qualifies. IF your lives get back to normal will depend on what the doctors tell police/CPS. If criminal charges against your BF do happen, you need to think VERY long and hard about him ever being back under the same roof with the child, as CPS could at that point remove the child from your care (Google the term "failure to protect"). For now, you'll have to wait and see what the docs say about how the injury might have actually taken place.

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I agree with aardvarc on this one. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.