By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com

Ingrid Aguirre, 21, is charged with felony child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury for incidents that occurred between May 16, 2007, when the child was born, and June 20, 2007. The baby and her older brother are now in foster care.

The trial began on Monday with jury selection in Hall County District Court.

On Tuesday, two doctors from Children's Hospital in Omaha testified that the infant suffered 19 rib fractures on three separate occasions and fractures to both legs. Dr. Jeff DeMare said the rib fractures were near the spine and could have been caused only by an adult squeezing hard with his or her fingers.

Both doctors testified that they believed the injuries were the result of abuse.

While the baby was at Children's Hospital, Aguirre was interviewed by a Grand Island police officer, with assistance from a Spanish-speaking Omaha officer. Aguirre speaks some English.

She said Friday that she told the officers she had shaken her baby because she believed, if she didn't tell them something, medical personnel wouldn't treat her child.

"I didn't shake her," Aguirre testified Friday.

She said she is afraid of police because, in her native country, law enforcement officers are corrupt. It was also her experience in the United States that not all officers tell the truth and that they try to get people in trouble, she said. She thought the police could be lying to her about how badly her baby was hurt, despite the fact that medical personnel had also told her about the fractures.

"I couldn't believe my little daughter, my baby, was that hurt," she said.

She said the doctors and nurses told her they needed to know how the baby was hurt so they could treat her. She testified that it was difficult for her to believe the baby had been hurt by abuse because the doctors in Grand Island weren't able to tell her what was wrong during the numerous visits to the clinic and hospital.

She began her testimony Friday by talking about her living arrangements when she came to Grand Island in early 2007. She and her young son lived with her sister and brother-in-law and their child. Her sister worked, and Aguirre said she and her brother-in-law, Javier Rosas, stayed home with the children. She described Rosas as a "daddy" to her children.

Aguirre testified that her daughter cried for nearly an hour after she was delivered by cesarean section and she cried a lot once they got home. She was concerned about the child, particularly after two separate occasions when the baby quit breathing, she said.

After the second time the baby quit breathing, on June 20, 2007, she was taken to Omaha. On that day, Aguirre said, she was in the kitchen getting something to eat and Rosas was in the living room, where the baby was sleeping in a bassinet. At one point, he called for Aguirre because the baby quit breathing. He began CPR, she said, and she called 911.

Aguirre said that, during her interview with police, she was holding the baby when the child quit breathing. She said she lied because she has a "tight family."

"I didn't want to get nobody else in trouble," she said.

She said she never saw anyone else hurt her daughter and she never squeezed the baby herself.

"I lied to the police, but I'm not lying now," she said. "I just want the truth to come out."

A lunch break was taken during Aguirre's testimony. When the jurors returned, the judge informed them that the trial, which was in its fourth day, would resume Monday due to a medical emergency.

Aguirre's attorney, Deputy Hall County Public Defender Vicky Kenney, was not in the courtroom when the jury returned. However, Hall County Public Defender Gerry Piccolo was seated at the defense table with Aguirre.