Deputy cleared in boy’s choking
Sergeant was accused of abusing 5-year-old
Accused of choking a 5-year-old boy who was wetting his bed, a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s sergeant told a jury Friday he never laid a hand on his girlfriend’s son.
And after 20 minute of deliberations, the jury of four women and two men returned a not guilty verdict for Roger Aaron Kirby on two counts of child abuse.
“I am hoping to see him back in a green uniform serving the citizens of Palm Beach County very soon,” said defense attorney Michael Salnick. “The nightmare is over for Mr. Kirby.”
Hours earlier, Kirby repeatedly said “no” when asked if he ever squeezed the child’s neck — disputing the testimony of the boy, now 9, three days earlier.
Kirby, who declined to comment on the
The defense said a possible explanation for the boy’s burst blood vessels is that he might have a bleeding disorder.
jury’s decision, hugged his parents and embraced the boy’s mother in the courtroom.
A few of the jurors, reached by phone after the verdict, said the panel quickly agreed there was reasonable doubt, based on the evidence and testimony presented by both sides in the weeklong trial. The jurors said they felt comfortable with their decision to acquit Kirby.
The case began in May 2014 after the child told his kindergarten teacher and authorities that “mean Aaron” — Kirby — a month earlier had choked him one night in his bed.
“It caused blood vessels to burst, to the point it caused hemorrhaging in his eyes,” Assistant State Attorney Chrichet Mixon said in her closing argument. “This was an intentional act to cause injury to this child.”
The child, dressed in a suit, testified about the alleged incident that put him in the hospital for three days with bloody eyes, a rash and swollen lip.
“He grabbed me, like, and he started to choke me,” the boy said on the witness stand. “I tried to get out, but I couldn’t.”
The South Florida Sun Sentinel is not identifying the child because of his age and the nature of the charges.
A former Marine, Kirby, 41, has been on unpaid administrative leave from his job at the sheriff’s office, where he has worked for the past 13 years.
Attorney Salnick argued the false allegations were the result of hostility between the boy’s mother and father.
“Roger Kirby was caught in the middle and all he can say is that he didn’t do it,” Salnick told the jury.
The defense said a possible explanation for the appearance of the burst blood vessels is that the child might suffer from an undiagnosed bleeding disorder. A Miami doctor who is an expert in pediatric hemophilia said more tests should have been done on the boy after he was brought to Palms West Hospital on April 22, 2014.
Salnick asked the jury to review the child’s medical records, which indicate prior issues with nosebleeds, fever and more.
“There are many reasons for this condition,” the attorney said of the boy’s bloody eyes and swollen lip.
“There is no evidence that Roger Kirby did anything to this child,” Salnick insisted, urging the panel to consider that the boy’s initial statements to doctors and investigators were that no one had hurt him. “This man is on trial for offenses he didn’t commit.”
But prosecutor Mixon said, “The only explanation is that this defendant choked that child.”
The boy was harmed by Kirby, angry that the child continued to wear “pullups” when he was close to 6 years old, the prosecutor said.
“Roger Kirby was disgusted at the thought of this 5-year-old boy still having accidents,” Mixon said.
Kirby testified that the boy no longer had a bedwetting problem by the time the youngster and his mother went to live with him in Wellington.
The child’s mother, who now has a 2-year-old boy with Kirby, testified Friday that Kirby never harmed her older son.
“He has never once in our whole relationship been mean to my son,” she said.
Kirby, who has two daughters from a previous marriage, had faced up to 35 years in prison if convicted of both charges in the case.