A jury trial involving a Hillsboro man who allegedly shook his infant daughter until she experienced seizures and had to be placed into a medically-induced coma has been moved to July 10 to allow the defense time to review evidence in the case.
The trial was originally scheduled for June 12, but was moved during a final pretrial hearing Wednesday following a motion for continuance filed by defense attorney J.D. Wagoner.
Wagoner said during Wednesday’s proceedings that due to the “high volume of evidence” in the case, the defense would need more time to prepare for the trial. Wagoner said he has been looking for a medical expert to aid in trial preparations.
Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss said he understands the medical records in the case to be complicated, allowing Wagoner seven days to identify an expert.
As previously reported by The Times-Gazette, the prosecution plans to call as many as 20 witnesses, including five expert witnesses to the stand.
Discovery documents available during an earlier pretrial hearing show that prosecutor Anneka Collins plans to call witnesses including six Hillsboro police officers, along with medical personnel, Children Services officials and neighbors.
Collins also plans to call five expert witnesses, all of them medical professionals from Highland District Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Among the discovery items are “reports of suspected child abuse from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.” Previously, Collins told The Times-Gazette that hospital officials in Cincinnati found evidence of a “healing hairline fracture to the left tibia” of the baby. Collins said the finding “may indicate prior abuse.”
Discovery material shows that Proctor’s prior record includes an OVI in Highland County and driving without a license in Clinton County, both in 2016.
In a previous hearing in juvenile court to determine temporary child custody, Proctor admitted to facts presented in court, including a series of events on March 12 during which “he could not get (the baby) to stop crying, he shook her and she went limp… then (she) began crying so hard she turned purple and began to seize.”
Proctor is the father of both the baby and her 8-year-old brother. The baby’s mother is a Hillsboro resident, while the mother of the older child lives in Kentucky.
The baby was released from the hospital in late March. Proctor was indicted last month by a Highland County grand jury on charges of felonious assault and child endangerment. The admissions made by Proctor in juvenile court cannot be used against him in the felony case, according to juvenile court judge Kevin Greer.
Proctor was arrested March 15 by the Hillsboro Police Department and charged with felonious assault in regard to the injuries to the baby, which occurred when she was just a month old. He is being held at the Highland County Justice Center.
The case first came to light that same date when the local Children Services agency filed a request with Greer for emergency protective custody of the baby and her brother after the infant was taken to Highland District Hospital on March 12, then transferred by life squad to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where she was sedated into a coma due to seizures.
