Pasco baby’s skull fracture ignored for 2 days. Mom and boyfriend now in jail.

A Pasco mother and her boyfriend are in jail on allegations they ignored a baby’s head injuries for two days.

Pasco police say the boyfriend abused the 5-month-old boy while the mom was at the store.

Savanna J. Roger, 21, told detectives she recognized her son’s injuries were serious, but feared taking him to the hospital would expose her criminal and narcotic history and result in the boy being taken from her, according to court documents.

Roger also said she believed the baby “would overcome his injuries without the need of medical help,” documents said.

Her boyfriend Caleb R. Crenshaw claims he was giving the boy a bottle when the baby fell from his arms and onto his face.

He added that he knew the boy needed treatment, but didn’t do anything about it because his girlfriend threatened to kick him out of her Sylvester Street apartment.

Two days later, another new mother was at Roger’s apartment for a playdate and became so concerned about the baby’s injuries that she later called police.

Roger and Crenshaw, 20, appeared Wednesday in Franklin County Superior Court, where Judge Vic VanderSchoor found probable cause to hold them for first-degree criminal mistreatment.

Crenshaw also has an investigative hold for first-degree assault of a child. His bail is $250,000.

Bail for Roger was set at $50,000.

Prosecutors have until Friday afternoon to charge the couple or release them from custody.

Pasco police were alerted to the alleged child abuse on Aug. 25 when a woman called with concerns about a child’s well-being, saying the baby had trauma to his head, face, back and feet.

Officer Jeffrey Cobb spoke with the woman who said she’d recently become friends with Roger and, as a new mother herself, set up an Aug. 24 playdate.

The woman said she immediately noticed Roger’s baby had “a fat upper lip that was greenish and split on the inside,” a bruised ear and swelling and bruising on the back of the head.

Roger allegedly told the friend she’d left her son in the care of her boyfriend on Aug. 23 when she went to the store, and returned about 30 minutes later to find the bruising.

The woman claimed that Roger divulged this wasn’t the first time she’s come home to see bruises and black eyes on her baby, and that she planned to take him to the doctor one day, said court documents.

Cobb went to Roger’s apartment and heard a child “frantically screaming” inside and a man’s repeated shouts to “Shut up.”

Crenshaw opened the front door, and Cobb saw clothes and other items strewn about the apartment and smelled a strong odor of trash, rotting food, feces and decay, according to court documents.

When Roger denied any problem with the baby and said everything was fine, Cobb picked up the boy from his playpen and asked to talk to Roger outside so she couldn’t keep looking at her boyfriend before answering questions, documents said.

Outside, Roger allegedly told the officer that she was suspicious about Crenshaw’s claim that the baby fell on his face because of the bruising on her son’s back and head.

The baby was taken to Lourdes Medical Center, where emergency room physician Dr. Gerard Van Houdt diagnosed a depressed skull fracture.

The baby initially was going to be flown to a hospital in Spokane or Seattle, but instead was moved to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. He reportedly is in stable condition.

Child Protective Services was notified about the incident and the baby was placed in protective custody.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Pasco baby’s skull fracture ignored for 2 days. Mom and boyfriend now in jail.."