Bucks man gets up to 23 months in hurt baby case

By Scott Kraus

The Morning Call

March 11, 2008

A 23-year-old Quakertown man was sentenced Monday to six to 23 months in Bucks County Prison after admitting he fractured the thigh bone of his girlfriend's 7-month-old son when he picked him up by the legs in January 2007.

That might not be the only bad news for Fermin Honorato.

Deputy District Attorney Sara Rothman said Honorato is not in the country legally, and now that he has been convicted of a crime, could face deportation to Mexico.

Honorato's attorney, Elizabeth Lippy, would not comment on her client's immigration status, but she said she thought the sentence was appropriate.

''I think it was a fair sentence,'' Lippy said. ''It takes into account the seriousness of the offense and that mistakes can happen.''

Judge Jeffrey Finley ordered Honorato, of 200 Front St., to be screened for house arrest and to undergo a mental-health evaluation while incarcerated.

As part of his punishment, Honorato was ordered to have no contact with Emily Moyer Rohrbach's child -- who is not his own son -- and for the next four years will be prohibited from being alone with any child under 7.

Lippy said Honorato was planning to contest the charges at trial as recently as Friday. To secure a guilty plea, prosecutors dropped the most serious charge of aggravated assault.

Instead, Honorato pleaded guilty to simple assault and reckless endangerment.

Doctors at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children reported the incident to the Montgomery County Department of Children and Youth when they treated the baby for a broken leg in January 2007.

Rohrbach told Finley that Honorato had never shown any anger toward her or her baby and she was being torn apart trying to figure out how her son had been hurt.

''I strongly believe he had no ill intent or violent means toward my son,'' said Rorhbach, who continues to date Honorato.

Honorato said he was sorry he injured the child.

Finley pressed Honorato, a cook who works six days a week at a Souderton-area restaurant, to explain how he injured the baby, but he offered little insight.

''It's the way I picked up the child,'' Honorato said through his interpreter. ''The way I picked him up. I took him by his legs and his back and I put him over my shoulder.''

Physicians also discovered older injuries, including a fractured skull and three broken ribs, but prosecutors were unable to determine how they were caused because of the age of the fractures, Rothman said.

''We have no way to link him to those injuries,'' Rothman said.

At Honorato's preliminary hearing in October 2007, Dr. Maria McColgan, director of St. Christopher's child-protection program, testified that it would take severe force to break a baby's leg, equivalent to that experienced in a three-story fall or serious car crash.

Honorato first denied hurting the boy, telling police he was never alone with the child.

But upon further investigation, police determined he had been alone with the 7-month-old for at least a brief period on Jan. 15, 2007, at his apartment while Rohrbach was in the shower.

Rohrbach told police that after she came out of the shower, the baby was ''fussy, wanted to be held and didn't like to be moved,'' according to court papers.

Rothman said the now 20-month old boy's injuries have healed, and that his case remains under the supervision of Montgomery County Children and Youth Services.

scott.kraus@mcall.com 215-230-4930

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