Hobart man charged with abusing girlfriend’s son again

A Hobart man is back in jail, only a few months after he was last accused of abusing his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son in May, court records show.

Blake M. Neyhart, 22, of the 400 block of West Hansen Boulevard was charged Oct. 6 with three felonies after the child was taken to the emergency room with new injuries. He was arrested Oct. 7 and ordered held without bail.

A judge also issued an arrest warrant on Oct. 7 for Michaella Mitchell, 23, of Hobart, the boy’s mother, who encouraged the child to lie to police, filings show. Records show she is not in custody. Her bond is set at $6,000 cash.

A police officer was called at 2:14 p.m. Aug. 29 to Franciscan Health Crown

Point, where an emergency room nurse filled him in on several of the boy’s injuries.

He had a large cut or laceration on his forehead and a handprint on his face as if hit from behind by an adult, she said. There were also bruises on his arms, legs and neck, the nurse said. The laceration on his head was “so deep you could see his skull,” according to the affidavit.

Mitchell told her that she turned around quickly and accidentally knocked the boy into their coffee table’s corner. The hand print was from him falling asleep on his hand in the car going to the ER, she claimed.

The nurse discounted this and called the Indiana Department of Child Services, she said. Mitchell appeared to “coach” the boy on what to say, the nurse said.

Mitchell told the same story to officers on how her child was hurt at her home on the 4000 block of Howard Street. She told police she didn’t want to tell them anything else.

“I did this,” the child told police, which was discounted by officers, because his hand was too small to match the imprint left by an adult, charges state. The boy mentioned Neyhart had been “mad” when he was over at their house that day, charges state.

A doctor told police the injuries could have only been caused by blunt force trauma and the child could not have hurt himself, given the angle. He also needed several stitches for the cut on his head, she said.

A DCS caseworker concluded the child needed to be removed from Mitchell’s home and placed him with his grandfather, records show.

When police went to Mitchell’s house, they noticed a pair of windows on a Jeep were broken out and another on a different vehicle. That happened after Neyhart lost his temper, the grandfather later said.

Mitchell and Neyhart were both at the house. He had a no-contact order from the prior case, when he was accused of hitting the boy with a belt in May, records show. He signed a plea agreement and was sentenced on Sept. 28 to two years probation.

She said she thought it was OK Neyhart was there, since the boy was not at home at the time, charges state. Both said they would go to the police station for questioning, but didn’t show, police said.

At a later police interview with the boy and his grandfather, Mitchell was there holding the boy on her lap. She was told to leave.

“Remember what we talked about,” a witness said she told the boy.

“Don’t say a (expletive) word to them,” she told her father, the boy’s grandfather.

She went to wait in her car, charges said.

When the man asked his grandson if he told the truth after his interview, the boy said no.

“I don’t want mommy to go to jail,” the boy said.

The grandfather told police that Mitchell left work as a bartender that afternoon after something happened while Neyhart was watching the child.

Later, detectives revisited the boy and asked if he knew the difference between the truth and a lie.

“Blake got mad” and hit him and his “mommy took him to get stitches,” the child admitted.

Neyhart was charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14, both level 3 felonies, and domestic battery resulting in bodily injury to a person less than 14 years of age, a level 5 felony.

Mitchell was charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14, both level 3 felonies, domestic battery resulting in bodily injury to a person less than 14 years of age, a level 5 felony, assisting a criminal, a level 6 felony, and misdemeanor false informing.

A level 3 felony charge carries a potential sentence from 3-16 years.