Man accused of abusing baby also faces a 2012 charge

Kristofer A. Bernier in court Wednesday to face charges from older incident

WOONSOCKET – The case of a city man’s alleged beating of a friend’s child took a new twist on Wednesday when police charged him with failure to appear in court on prior charges stemming from an unrelated child abuse incident from October of 2012.

Kristofer A. Bernier, 25, was charged with first degree child abuse after the fivemonth-old child of the couple he was living with at 120 East St. suffered a fractured skull and cerebral hemorrhages while he was babysitting for the couple on Sunday.

The child remains at Hasbro Children’s Hospital where he was taken for treatment after initially being taken to Landmark Medical Center by rescue personnel. The emergency personnel went to the home in response to reports that the child had somehow been seriously

injured while the parents, Casey Wilder and Bridget Claydon, were away at a Celtics game.

Wilder’s sister reported the injuries to 911 while both she and Bernier reportedly made calls to the couple informing them something had happened to their child.

Wilder has told the media he and Claydon took in Bernier, Wilder’s friend from past work together, when he lost his apartment in East Woonsocket, even though they were aware he had past problems with a child abuse case and substance abuse issues.

During an investigation of Sunday’s incident, Bernier initially told police the baby had been injured when he accidentally fell off a shallow sofa. Not accepting the explanation due to the child’s apparent injuries, police say they subsequently learned from Bernier that he had repeatedly slapped the child because he would not stop crying, allegedly telling officers “he lost it.”

The additional formal charge filed against Bernier in Family Court on Wednesday resulted from a police review of an outstanding warrant filed against him in connection with injuries sustained by the two-yearold daughter of his then girlfriend, Caitlyn Sasser, during an incident in their Front Street apartment on Oct. 23, 2012.

Detective Sgt. Matthew Ryan said on Wednesday that while the charge appeared to have been resolved on computer court records, police subsequently discovered that Bernier had never gone to a scheduled court hearing in the matter, and in fact the 2012 felony charge of cruelty to or neglect of a child was still pending.

The child’s mother, Sasser, was also charged with child neglect in connection with the case back in 2012, Ryan said, but later pled to a charge of second degree child neglect.

The fact that Bernier never appeared for a hearing in the case left it as an active charge that he still faces, Ryan said. “He still has the 2012 case and is now facing the new case,” Ryan said.

Police reports on the 2012 case detailed police observations of the two-year girl having a “large deep red bruise on the left side of her face,” according to an officer’s description. The bruise was reported to have covered the majority of the left side of the child’s face, and she also had bruising under her chin and small bruising on her ribs, according to officers investigating the case in 2012.

Sasser told police at the time that she and Bernier had been outside on a porch and saw the child fall off a counter, landing on the floor face first.

The mother said she did not initially believe the child suffered any injuries, until she began to complain that her head hurt and she had a fever the next day. The couple took the child to hospital, where the staff notified police of the injuries after determining them to be suspicious in nature.

Bernier gave police a similar description of how the child was hurt and indicated that as he babysat the children the next day, the injured girl felt feverish and began vomiting. Bernier and Sasser then took the girl to the hospital to be checked out.

Police investigators reported that the child’s facial injuries appeared to be bruising in the outline of a handprint across her face. The bruising did not appear consistent with a fall from a counter top onto the floor, police said in the reports.

Bernier was being held at the ACI in lieu of $25,000, following his arraignment on the new child abuse charges on Monday.