After spending about three months behind bars, a Los Angeles man has been cleared of a felony child abuse charge involving his infant son, the man’s attorney said Wednesday.
“I would say that I am so heartened that the district attorney on the case did the right thing early in the proceedings,” Deputy Public Defender Philip Dube said of the case being thrown out against his client, William Daniel Lemuszetino.
Lemuszetino, now 33, had been jailed since his arrest March 3 by Los Angeles police and was released last Thursday after the prosecution asked that the case — which included a felony count of injuring a spouse, cohabitant, fiance, boyfriend, girlfriend or child’s parent involving the boy’s mother — be dismissed in the interest of justice, the defense attorney said.
“He hugged me and he thanked me and he cried,” Dube said of his client’s reaction.
Dube said his client had maintained his innocence while awaiting a hearing to determine if there was sufficient evidence to require him to stand trial.
“He kept saying he was innocent,” the defense attorney said. “I truly think he is.”
In a statement released in March, Los Angeles police alleged that Lemuszetino dropped the then-3-week-old baby — who was described as “lifeless” — on the floor during a dispute with the boy’s mother and said officers performed CPR. But medical records from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles showed the baby was not injured, and the prosecution verified that with the chief pediatrician at the hospital, the defense attorney said.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office could not be reached for immediate comment on the dismissal of the case.