Father Pleads No Contest To Assaulting Infant Son
HARTFORD — A Springfield man pleaded no contest Wednesday to first-degree assault for shaking, squeezing and seriously injuring his 4-month-old son.
William Clingensmith, 38, who used to live in Enfield, was arrested in February on two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of risk on injury to a minor. The assaults occurred in October 2017.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, negotiated by prosecutor Richard Rubino and defense attorney Erin M. Field of Enfield, Clingensmith pleaded guilty to a single count of first-degree assault.
He will be sentenced Jan. 23 to 7 1⁄2 years in prison to be followed by 7 1⁄2 years of special parole. Clingensmith appeared to be overcome with emotion as Rubino described the injuries the baby suffered, and then as Hartford Superior Court Judge Laura F. Baldini questioned him about his plea.
Rubino said the boy suffered a brain bleed and two broken ribs, and that Clingensmith gave varying accounts of what happened. In one instance, he admitted shaking the boy, squeezing the boy until he heard a popping sound, then throwing him onto a crib mattress. On another occasion he tossed the boy onto a car seat.
The injuries were discovered after the infant was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by his parents. And it was not the first time Clingensmith had been suspected of physically assaulting a child.
According to the warrant for Clingensmith’s arrest, Clingensmith and his wife took their 4-month-old son to Baystate in January after the child had a seizure and had difficulty breathing. Hospital staff determined that the baby was suffering from bleeding on the brain and immediately contacted the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, who then contacted Enfield police.
Hospital staff also discovered two broken ribs that had begun to heal.
The child’s injuries were so serious that he was transferred to the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain.
The child may have suffered the head injury when a frustrated Clingensmith threw him onto a car seat while parked at an East Windsor business, according to the warrant. The broken ribs occurred when Clingensmith squeezed the boy, the warrant says.
Clingensmith told Enfield detectives that he hugged the boy against his body and that the boy cried and turned red. “There was a couple of snaps” and “I was like whoa, wait. What did I just do?” the warrant quotes him as saying.
“William said he remembered the sound and said he felt horrible when it happened,” according to the warrant. He then began to cry, said “I feel like a bad parent,” and blamed his conduct on his emo- tions and frustrations.
The boy’s mother has divorced Clingensmith.
The doctor who treated Clingensmith’s son at Baystate had also treated his daughter from a previous marriage. That child was taken to the hospital in 2014 with brain bleeding caused by suspected abuse. In addition to the bleed, the girl had bruising on her neck and multiple bone fractures, all indicative of abuse, according to the warrant.
Clingensmith’s ex-wife told police that no charges were ever filed against Clingensmith in his daughter’s case. The girl is now 4 and “suffers from significant physical disabilities as a result of the incident,” according to the warrant. Clingensmith is permitted only supervised visits with the girl for one hour a week.