APD: Man injured 1-year-old because he peed himself
AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - A man has been charged with injury to a child after Austin police say he hit his one-year-old multiple times in the face after he peed himself.
Matteo Griego, 26, is charged with third-degree felony injury to a child.
According to an arrest affidavit, officers were dispatched to the Onion Creek Apartments on Slaughter Lane on a check welfare call on July 31. The child's mother called 911 because Griego refused to call EMS for the child and had left, telling the mother the child fell and suffered a bruise.
According to the affidavit, Griego was with the child when the mother left for work. He told officers he had woken up and went to the gym, leaving the child sleeping. The child was still asleep when he came back, so he went about his day. Later, he went back to find the boy jumping in the baby bed and said that the child hit his mouth on the rail and began to cry.
He told officers he did not console or pick the boy up because he shouldn't have been jumping up and down, says the affidavit. When he returned to dress the boy, he found the boy had peed himself, so he took the boy and placed him on his and the mother's bed, then left the room. He heard a loud noise then walked back into the room to find the child lying face down on the floor crying.
Griego said he watched the child throw a tantrum because he "did not believe in picking [the child] up when he cries because it makes him worse." The child wouldn't stop crying, so he called the boy's mother who called 911, says the affidavit.
The mother said she called 911 but Griego sent them away. She returned home to find the boy asleep and called EMS again to come and check on him for fear he might have a seizure, says the affidavit. Griego left and then returned when police arrived.
A social worker told officers the child had bruising to the face and behind the ear and a cut to the top of his head, according to the affidavit. A doctor informed officers that the boy had sustained concerning multiple bruises inconsistent with the explanations Griego gave.
According to officers, Griego confessed in a follow-up interview to placing the boy on the bed after he peed himself and that he "snapped and beat him up." He said he hit the child three times in the face with his open hand and that's when the child fell to the floor and hit his head on an unknown object in the room. Griego told officers he didn't see the head injury until they got to the hospital.
Griego told officers he was "out of character that day" and that he was upset because the boy was drenched in pee, but that if the boy could talk, he would "tell him he was sorry and that he loves him."