A 28-year-old mother is now facing charges related to the serious injuries her 2-year-old daughter suffered last month, allegedly at the hands of the woman’s boyfriend.
Melissa Nicole Mangeri was arrested Thursday on suspicion of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury.
The Jefferson County District Attorney’s office says she has been arrested because she allowed her daughter to be “unreasonably placed in a situation that posed a threat of injury to the child.”
Mangeri’s boyfriend, , was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 17. He has been charged with reckless child abuse resulting in serious injuries.
Mangeri is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and is next due in court on Oct. 26 at which point she is slated to be advised of any formal charges pending against her.
“Mangeri was present during one or more of the assaults on the child and failed to seek assistance, thereby unreasonably placing the child in a
situation that posed a threat of injury or death,” the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Friday.
Mangeri’s daughter was found unresponsive in her mother’s lap on Sept. 14 at a Denver elementary school, prompting the criminal investigation, authorities say.
The child was taken to Denver Health medical center, where doctors found she had a lacerated liver and severe head trauma, according to court documents. When the girl was admitted to the hospital, doctors said she faced a substantial risk of death.
