Judge acquits city woman in child endangering case

Photo

Sarah Shumar

‘Who knows how it happened?’ the judge said.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A 23-year-old Oregon Avenue woman has been acquitted of child endangering.

On Wednesday, visiting Judge Charles J. Bannon in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court acquitted Sarah Shumar of shaking her 11-month-old son in March. A nonjury trial began Tuesday.

The boy has brain damage that has left him disabled on his left side and given him trouble with walking and the use of his left hand.

“Who knows how it happened? That’s what I conclude from all this testimony,” Judge Bannon said before rendering his verdict.

The prosecution’s sole witness was Dr. R. Daryl Steiner, an emergency room physician who examined the boy at Akron Children’s Hospital, the judge noted.

Dr. Steiner concluded that the boy’s injury was consistent with shaking because there was no history of an accidental event that could have explained this injury.

He said brain scans showed fresh blood on one of the outer layers of the boy’s brain, a condition known as a subdural hemorrhage, and that the bleeding occurred within two days before the March 29 examination.

But, under cross-examination by defense lawyer David Betras, Dr. Steiner didn’t say whether it was possible for the 100-pound Shumar to cause the 20-pound boy’s injuries by shaking him.

“It’s not up to me who did it,” Dr. Steiner said, confirming he saw no scratches or bruises on the boy.

A defense expert, Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a brain surgeon at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., whom the judge said he found credible, testified that there were a number of ways the injury could have occurred.

Dr, Uscinski said he didn’t believe the injury came from shaking, but it might have resulted from seizures or from a complication of birth.

“The fact that it happened doesn’t mean that this girl did it,” the judge said. “I think there’s more evidence in this case that this girl didn’t do this than evidence that she did,” the judge concluded.