NJ court: Shaken Baby Syndrome could be 'junk science'

A state appellate court has agreed that charges brought against a Middlesex County man for harming his 11-month-old son by allegedly shaking him be dismissed because of a dispute in the medical and scientific community about the validity of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

The appeals court affirmed the decision by a Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez to dismiss aggravated assault and child endangerment charges against Darryl Nieves.

Jimenez ruled against the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office’s request to present evidence in the trial that shaking alone could have caused the injuries to the infant.

Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca, citing Jimenez's decision, also denied the prosecutor's office’s request to present the testimony in the aggravated assault and child endangerment trial of Michael Cifelli, also accused of shaking his infant son, but did not dismiss the indictment.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office then appealed those decisions.

But the appellate court, in a 64-page decision, agreed with the judges' decisions that the prosecutor's office had failed to establish the reliability of Shaken Baby Syndrome, despite its "seeming acceptance" in the pediatric medical community.

Courts: Catholic school can fire teacher for premarital sex, NJ Supreme Court rules

All the experts that testified in a hearing before JImenez, the appeals court wrote, "agreed that, at the very least, there was controversy surrounding the theory that the biomechanical principles underlying (Shaken Baby Syndrome) actually supported the conclusion that shaking only can cause the injuries associated with (Shaken Baby Syndrome.)"

In his decision, Jimenez ruled "no study has ever validated the hypotheses that shaking a child can cause the symptoms associated with (Shaken Baby Syndrome)" and likened the theory to "junk science," given the lack of testing.

He found that Shaken Baby Syndrome "is a flawed diagnosis because it originates from a theory based upon speculation and extrapolation instead of being anchored in facts developed through reliable testing."

In the Nieves case, the appeals court agreed with Jimenez, saying that without that testimony, the prosecutor's office could not show that Nieves caused harm to his son.

The prosecutor's office "would not be able to explain" how Nieves harmed his son, leaving the question for the jury to determine, the court wrote.

That, the appeals court added, "would require the jury to make such a leap."

Courts: State Supreme Court rules in favor of NJ teacher who lost tenure after child was born

Two years ago, a California man imprisoned for 15 years in the death of his month-old son was freed after prosecutors and a judge agreed that the scientific research underlying Shaken Baby Syndrome had changed significantly.

That case, according to the Associated Press, was among a series of nationwide legal challenges to what used to be accepted evidence of Shaken Baby Syndrome which at one point was determined by brain swelling and bleeding inside the skull and behind the eyes. Medical experts now say the telltale pattern of injuries isn’t so clear and that those symptoms can sometimes be caused by a short accidental fall.

According to court papers, Nieves was charged in 2017 after his son had three medical episodes when he became limp and appeared to lose consciousness.

In the third episode, the child also had a seizure and that triggered a child abuse investigation against Nieves.

The son was born at 25 weeks in March 2016 and remained at St. Peter's University Hospital through October 2016 except for undergoing cardiac surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

When the child was admitted to St. Peter's following the third episode, a child abuse pediatrician diagnosed him with Shaken Baby Syndrome only "within a reasonable degree of medical certainty."

Nieves was indicted by a grand jury in June 2017.

Cifelli was indicted in November 2017 after his 10-week-old son went to the hospital twice in December 2016 and January 2017.

After the second incident, the infant, who was also born premature, was diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome, finding that there was no other medical diagnosis that could explain his symptoms.

Four years later, in October 2021, Cifelli and his son's mother were charged with additional acts of child endangerment against the son and his sibling.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ court: Shaken Baby Syndrome could be 'junk science'