Bradley's Law in NH

Article from Eagle Times...in full:NEWPORT — An Acworth man has been sentenced to a prison term of three to seven years for the still unexplained 2012 child assault that left a 2-year-old boy in Charlestown with "horrific" lifelong injuries.Frederick R. Barth Jr., 26, described by the boy's father and his girlfriend as a "monster" in a statement at his sentencing hearing Wednesday in Sullivan County Superior Court, said the tragedy has devastated him."Not a day goes by that I don't think about what happened to him. Although I didn't know him long, I did care about him," said Barth, reading from a hand-written letter.Sheena Gardner, girlfriend of the boy's father, Joshua Purple, scoffed at Barth's apology as the couple sat together in the courtroom."Congratulations, Freddy. You got away with it," Gardner, her face red and drenched in tears, shouted outside the courtroom after Judge Brian T. Tucker read the negotiated sentence to Barth.Barth pleaded guilty to the charge of first-degree assault in April. He will receive credit for 155 days of pretrial confinement in the county jail.As a part of his plea agreement, Barth must undergo mandatory counseling, treatment, and education, and have no contact with the victim once he is released.He will be eligible for parole in 2018.County attorneys had recommended a state prison term of four to 15 years, but opted against it based on Barth's lack of a criminal record and other "factors" that mitigated a harsher sentence.Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway said among those factors was the still unexplained cause of the child's "horrific" traumatic brain and bodily injuries that limited the case to "circumstantial evidence.""But for those difficulties, we would have been asking for a greater sentence," Hathaway said.On July 5, 2012, Barth was charged with first-degree assault after then 20-month-old Bradley Purple was airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon with severe head trauma, bruising, broken ribs and hemorrhaging in both eyes.He was also left temporarily paralyzed on the right side.While at DHMC, the boy underwent emergency surgery and other radical procedures to relieve the fluid pressure and swelling in his head, Hathaway said.Prosecutors argued in court documents that Barth was "the only adult to have contact with the child" as his appointed caretaker between the time the boy's mother and grandmother had left to go shopping.Barth had been dating the mother at the time, Hathaway said.Medical examiners concluded that the injuries appeared consistent with "non-accidental" trauma caused either by forceful shaking or collision with an object, Hathaway said.As a result, Bradley will have two permanent disfiguring shunts left inserted in his head and visible scars for the rest of his life, the prosecutor said."We can't describe exactly here how it took place. We can only describe the force that was used to cause these injuries," Hathaway said.Barth's public defender, Kathryn Polonsky, asked the judge for a more "appropriate" sentence of 2 1/2 to six years of incarceration in view of Barth's clean record and cooperation with investigators and medical staff."This is not a case where Freddy ran or hid ... this is a case where Freddy tried to do what was right," Polonsky said. "What he was able to do was help."Before imposing sentence, Tucker said the evidence did not show that a longer prison term would "deter others" from committing similar crimes."I don't have the evidence that an inordinately long sentence would protect the public," the judge said.