The trial of a man accused of child abuse in the death of his 11-week-old son will enter its fifth week today after testimony by doctors who said the boy had a metabolic disease. Alex Midyette’s trial in Denver is expected to wrap up this week. He faces four counts of child abuse, including one count that he fatally injured his son, Jason. Jason died in March 2006.
Dr. Kathy Keller, who works at Roanoke, Va.-based Pediatric Radiology of America, testified Friday that Jason did not suffer the 37 broken bones that prosecutors allege. Instead she said bone abnormalities identified by other doctors as fractures aren’t breaks at all, but cartilage that wasn’t turning into bone. She also testified that the abnormalities at the end of Jason’s bones are symmetrical on both sides of his body, indicating a metabolic disease.
“Child abuse is a violent, random act,” she said. “When you start seeing symmetry, you have to start looking at things other than trauma. There’s no doubt that he was suffering from some sort of metabolic bone disease.”
A pediatrician who examined Jason nine days before he began slipping into a coma Feb. 24, 2006, did not notice anything amiss, even though prosecutors said he had already been injured. The Associated Press
