A 20-year-old Kentucky father faces criminal charges after police say he left his infant daughter unattended in a bathtub for roughly five minutes to scroll on his cell phone.
Covington police responded to an apartment on Tuesday, May 26, following a report of a baby who was not breathing. According to arrest citations, the infant girl was found unresponsive in a tub filled with water.
The father, Seffan Mederious, allegedly told investigators he was in a separate room using his phone. Upon returning to the bathroom, he discovered the baby floating in the water. Mederious then carried the child to a relative’s nearby home, where 911 was called. The baby was transported to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
Mederious was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment and criminal abuse. Rob Sanders, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Kenton County, stated that Mederious left the scene before emergency responders arrived.
“I do know that when police arrived on the scene, Mr. Mederious had fled the residence and was found hiding at a nearby relative’s residence, so he didn’t stick around to help police and firefighters, and he didn’t respond to the hospital to see how the baby was doing,” Sanders said. “He felt it more important to run away from the scene.”
Mederious appeared in court on Wednesday, May 27, for a preliminary hearing. The case is now expected to be presented to a grand jury.
“We take children’s safety very seriously in Kenton County,” Sanders added. “We don’t expect parents to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they can’t do things that place their child at the risk of serious injury or death or there’s going to be consequences for it.”
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