Brenwyn Richey (Bingham County Sheriff’s Office).
An Idaho mother tried justifying the abuse of her infant daughter by telling a witness that the child was “not made of glass,” according to police.
“People do it all the time,” Brenwyn Richey, 26, told a witness about “shaking and jolting” her baby daughter like a rag doll, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime on Thursday.
Witnesses allegedly told police that they saw Richey yanking the girl around by her leg and bouncing the child aggressively on her knee, along with other violent acts, on multiple occasions. She is accused of doing this while trying to put her daughter to bed, as well as other times, when she was 1 week old and over a span of two months after her birth.
Blackfoot Police responded to a domestic disturbance call on Dec. 28 at Richey’s apartment in Blackfoot after she allegedly roughed up the child. She admitted to cops that she was using excessive force, according to the affidavit.
“Richey admitted to being ‘aggressive with her baby sometimes,’ specifically stating that she ‘bounces the baby on her leg aggressively’ and places the child on the bed with excessive force or speed,” the affidavit alleges, citing a conversation Richey had with a responding officer. “Richey provided physical demonstration of the leg-bouncing, which I observed to be rapid and forceful vertical motion. She acknowledged this behavior was a recurring issue and stated she was ‘trying to work on it.'”
A witness told police that when the girl was one week old, Richey dangled and “yanked” her by the leg without proper neck support. She told the witness after this alleged incident that the child was “not made of glass” and “asserted that ‘people do it all the time,'” the affidavit says.
Another witness told police that he saw Richey “shaking the infant” and he demonstrated the action by “extending his arms and jolting them back and forth, describing a ‘constant jolt’ that would last between five and 15 minutes, or until the infant ceased crying,” according to the affidavit.
Police were called to Richey’s apartment a second time on Dec. 29, which prompted cops to notify Child Protective Services. The agency consulted with the Bonneville County Attorney’s Office and initiated an emergency removal of Richey’s daughter from her home, according to the affidavit.
CPS officials say a prior report was on file “regarding THC exposure at birth.”
Police were informed on Jan. 2 that a medical evaluation performed on the girl found possible internal injuries. “The infant’s eyes appeared abnormally ‘droopy’ for her developmental age,” the affidavit says.
A follow-up evaluation was performed on Jan. 18 and allegedly revealed that the girl was experiencing “persistent internal swelling of an undetermined cause,” according to police.
“Based on the defendant’s admissions of aggressive physical handling, witness accounts of prolonged shaking and jolting, and subsequent medical findings of internal swelling and injury, I find that probable cause exists to charge Brenwyn Richey with felony injury to child,” an officer concluded in the affidavit.
Richey faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Court records show that she is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on April 9.
