Bensalem Babysitter Gets Probation In Assault of Infant
By Brad Segall
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) -- A Bucks County judge has sentenced a Bensalem woman to five years' probation as part of a plea deal. She admitted assaulting a four-month-old boy in her care last year after he suffered a near-fatal brain injury.
Cindy Berdick said nothing in court and offered no explanation for why she harmed the child. The 41-year-old, married mother of three pleaded guilty to simple assault and child endangerment and was sentenced to probation, and banned from babysitting.
Bucks County prosecutor Monica Furber says the child's parents agreed to the deal, sparing them from what could have been a difficult trial.
"Luckily the child is recovering quite well, so they are thankful," Furber told KYW Newsradio today, "and they just wanted to make sure that she would never be able to have that type of supervisory capacity with children so that this would never happen to any other child."
Doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia say the child showed signs of shaken-baby syndrome.
Berdick told detectives the infant was crying hysterically for 90 minutes before his arms and legs went stiff and his eyes rolled back in his head.
