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June 17, 2009

Accused man testifies in baby-abuse case

By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG

PLATTSBURGH — When Anthony Ciccone first started dating Courtney Facteau last year, he didn’t see her infant son very often.

But as the relationship became more serious, the 26-year-old Plattsburgh man started spending more time with Mason Facteau.

“I was with him a lot. I was with him all the time,” Ciccone testified Wednesday afternoon during his assault trial before Clinton County Court Judge Patrick McGill.



DAY RECALLED

Ciccone said he went to one of the infant’s regular doctor checkups and would help his girlfriend care for the baby when she visited his home and those of their relatives.

Ciccone said that’s what he was doing one morning last May when the 4-month-old boy woke up after an oft-interrupted night of sleep.

“I told Courtney to go ahead and lay down, that I’d take care of Mason,” he told jurors during the fifth day of the trial.

During questioning by defense attorney Allan Cruikshank, Ciccone said he played with the boy for awhile, then it came time for a diaper change.

“I used the wipes one at a time and cleaned him up. However many I used, there was one left.”

He said he wiped the baby down with the final wipe and balled it up, a routine that other witnesses have testified to.

But, he said, this time he left the balled-up wipe in the baby’s reach, instead of discarding it on the floor with the diaper and other wipes.



LEFT TO FIX BOTTLE

After another round of play time, Ciccone said, he went to the kitchen to make the baby a bottle.

“I was in the kitchen shaking the bottle, and I heard a noise from the bedroom. It was Mason.”

When he walked back, he said, that’s when he saw the wipe in the baby’s mouth.

“I panicked. I picked Mason up,” he said. “I yelled to Courtney to call 911.”

He said he ran from the bedroom with the choking child and stubbed his toe on the corner of a couch, falling to the ground and landing on top of the infant.

As the young mother ran for help, Ciccone said, he was finally able to wedge a finger beneath the wipe and jerked it forward, where he was able to pull it free.

Within minutes, emergency personnel arrived and took the infant to CVPH Medical Center, where he was intubated in respiratory distress and later diagnosed with a broken femur, along with two other leg fractures.



DIDN’T MENTION FALL

Assistant District Attorney Kristy Sprague questioned Ciccone at length as to why he never told the first-emergency responders that he fell on the boy.

A doctor previously testified that Ciccone, although extremely cooperative, only mentioned the fall after he learned of the leg fracture.

On the stand, Ciccone maintained that he told the doctor about the fall during the initial questioning and didn’t tell the first-responders because they “didn’t ask” and were concerned only with the baby’s choking and breathing complications.

Sprague also questioned his actions before the baby choked, since the doctor testified that Ciccone had said he was disposing of the diaper when the baby choked, though that diaper was later found in the bedroom.

“I loved Mason. I still love Mason,” he said emotionally, eventually becoming visibly frustrated and confused by the prosecution’s line of questioning.



SON ‘CRYING’

After the baby was taken to the hospital, Ciccone said, he ran to his mother’s workplace nearby.

His mother, Debra Ciccone, told jurors earlier in the day that her son was “very emotional. Shaken, crying, rambling” when he showed up.

“It was very evident that something had happened ... I just couldn’t make out what he was saying.”

Mrs. Ciccone said that she later told him to be quiet about the incident at the hospital because it became evident that authorities were suspicious.

She said she did that because she “doesn’t agree with” or “believe in” the Child Protective Services system and was afraid “this was going to be made out more than what it was.”

That’s why, she said, she told her son to bring a tape recorder with him when he spoke with police at his apartment after the ordeal.

But, she said, she also “told him to tell them exactly what happened and tell the truth.”

On the stand, despite prosecution questioning, Mrs. Ciccone maintained that she’d never seen her son treat the infant negatively and that he never complained about caring for the child, who is not his son.

She said her son was an experienced child-care provider, having cared for his nephew daily when they lived together.

Prosecutors suggested she would “do (or say) anything” to protect her son.



SIGNS OF SUPPORT

A handful of Ciccone supporters briefly held signs proclaiming his innocence outside the government Center before testimony started for the day.

The baby has since recovered from his injuries and remains in the custody of his mother, who has not testified.

The defense rested its case late Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors are expected to call at least two rebuttal witnesses when the trial resumes this morning. The case could go to the jury as soon as this afternoon.



E-mail Andrea VanValkenburg at:

avanvalkenburg@pressrepublican.com

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