TACOMA — A judgment that found Child Protective Services was not responsible for an infant’s debilitating injuries at the hands of his Kingston birth father in 2008 was reversed last week.
The civil case against CPS and wider state Department of Social and Health Services will be sent back to Pierce County Superior Court for a new trial after the state Division II Court of Appeals found on Tuesday that jurors were given incorrect instructions during deliberations. The agency, which is represented by the state Attorney General’s Office, may appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
The trial attorney for Aiden Barnum, the child who turned 7 this month, said Friday the decision was the right one. Jeff Johnson said he was not only “thrilled for Aiden, and Aiden’s family,” but also “thrilled for the children of the state of Washington.”
Aiden’s birth father, Jacob M. Mejia, of Kingston, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a Kitsap Superior Court jury found him guilty of first-degree assault in 2011 for injuring Aiden, who was 6 weeks old at the time and was born healthy.
“You have given Aiden a life sentence,” Melissa Barnum of Port Orchard, told Mejia at his sentencing. Barnum and her husband adopted Aiden, who was left with permanent physical and cognitive disabilities.
The injuries that disabled Aiden were not the first injuries of which authorities were aware. On Nov. 18, 2008, the 12-day-old boy was brought to Harrison Medical Center and then Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital with a type of arm fracture that medical staff found suspicious, according to the complaint.
CPS staff were notified, and interviewed the parents, but the birth parents were allowed to take the newborn back home to Kingston.
On Dec. 23, 2008, Aiden returned to Harrison with massive injuries that were later found by a jury to have been caused by Mejia, who was 17 years old at the time of the assault.
The lawsuit alleged CPS did not follow its own procedures and was negligent in its investigation of Mejia.
However, the agency contended the appeal was based on speculation and assumptions, including that the first injury to Aiden was intentional.
“By erroneously assuming that (Aiden’s) first injury was intentionally inflicted by his father, (Aiden’s attorney) claims that his second injury was foreseeable as a matter of law,” attorneys for the state wrote in documents. Further, the appeal incorrectly alleges it was an error by the court to issue the instructions to the jury about determining who is to blame for causing Aiden’s final injuries. “This ignores the record. At trial, this issue was highly disputed.”
In the civil case, the 12-person Pierce County jury agreed the agency was negligent, but did not hold the agency responsible for Aiden’s disabilities because of the faulty jury instruction, Johnson said.
“It allowed them to find for CPS even though CPS was found negligent 12-0,” Johnson said.
The agency also appealed the trial court’s rejection of two proposed jury instructions about the standards for finding negligence. The appellate court found those instructions can be included if or when the case goes back to trial.
A spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office said he could not comment on the case.
Johnson said he had visited with Aiden recently, and said he is thriving and gave credit to Aiden’s adoptive parents.
