FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A 34-year-old woman was out on bond on Tuesday in Broward County after a detective accused her of being to blame for a boy’s hospitalization.
The boy’s mother had trusted Deniqua Lovett, her girlfriend, to be a caregiver to her son while he was injured, according to police.
A detective reported the boy was healthy during a pediatric visit on Aug. 11, and had several injuries when his mother took him to the emergency room at Memorial West Hospital on Sept. 5.
The boy’s injuries were so severe that he was transferred to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital for treatment and surgery.
Detective Dwayne D’Haiti, with the Miramar Police Department, reported meeting the boy at the pediatric intensive care unit and learning about the injuries to his ribs, collar bone, ear, scalp, lower abdomen, elbow, forehead, wrist, and knee, records show.
The boy had suffered fractures that were “at different stages of healing” while under the care of Lovett, who had a history of domestic violence and battery cases, according to court records.
Lovett told the detective that the second-degree burns the boy had suffered on his scalp and ear happened while using a hot hair tool and attributed other injuries to his fall from a slide at the park, according to court records.
The hospital released the boy on Sept. 10, and the Florida Department of Children and Families placed him under the care of his maternal aunt after a court hearing, records show.
After an investigation, D’Haiti applied for an arrest warrant on Nov. 17 and reported that Lovett had sent text messages to the boy’s mother showing the boy’s swollen and bruised left eye on Aug. 24, the boy’s abrasion on his ear on Sept. 3, and the boy crying in pain on Sept. 4.
The warrant cited the boy’s medical records.
“The evidence of the injuries at different stages of healing indicate that [the boy] sustained inflicted trauma on multiple occasions in the weeks leading up to his recent hospitalization,” D’Haiti wrote.
Lovett appeared in bond court on Monday in Broward County. She faced a charge of second-degree felony child neglect with great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement.
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