A Vancouver woman was sentenced Friday in Clark County Superior Court after previously pleading guilty to assaulting her 1-year-old son.
Tara A. Mendoza, 25, had pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree assault of a child-domestic violence stemming from the April 2014 incident.
She had faced one count of first-degree assault of a child-domestic violence, two counts of second-degree assault of a child-domestic violence, a domestic violence court order violation and one count of making a false statement.
However, those charges were amended or dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Judge Robert Lewis sentenced Mendoza to 130 days in jail, but she was given credit for already serving the time. She was additionally sentenced to 12 months of community custody and is not to have contact with the child.
According to a probable cause affidavit, personnel at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center called Child Protective Services April 9, 2014, to report that the 1-year-old boy had a fractured left femur and a fractured left tibia that was healing. Physicians later discovered six more broken bones in the child’s body.
Mendoza refused to meet with CPS social workers April 21, 2014, so CPS removed the child from her custody, court records show.
Mendoza’s now former husband, Carlos, and other witnesses told police that Mendoza is the boy’s primary caretaker, and there were only two times between April 5, 2014, and April 21, 2014, when the boy was out of her care, according to the affidavit.
On one of those occasions, a baby sitter said she noticed that the boy was favoring one leg, court records said.
During her hearing on Friday, Mendoza’s attorney, Tonya Rulli, maintained that her client did not cause the boy’s injuries.
Rulli asked Lewis to lift the no-contact order between Mendoza and her son. Lewis denied the request, however.
