Kettering man accused of seriously injuring 2-week-old son while changing diaper

Dayton Children's Hospital in Old North Dayton. CORNELIUS FROLIK / STAFF

Dayton Children's Hospital in Old North Dayton. CORNELIUS FROLIK / STAFF

A Kettering man indicted Monday is accused of causing serious injuries to his newborn son in March when he was changing the two-week-old boy’s diaper.

Stephen L. Scholz, was issued a summons to appear for his May 14 arraignment in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court for three counts of endangering children and one count of domestic violence, all felony charges.

Kettering police were dispatched just after 11 p.m. March 26 to Dayton Children’s Hospital for a report of child abuse at a house in the 2000 block of Courtland Avenue.

A detective noted in an affidavit filed in Kettering Municipal Court that the child had swelling and discoloration to the left side of this face and to his left eye.

“He appeared to have a severe injury to the inside of his left cheek. The inside of the left cheek was protruding out toward the middle of his mouth,” the affidavit stated.

Hospital staff told the officer they believed it was buccal fat — a pad of adipose tissue in the cheek below each cheekbone — coming out of his cheek, according to the document.

The child’s mother told police that Scholz was changing the baby’s diaper while she was in the bathroom. When she came out of the bathroom, he was laying on Scholz’s chest crying. The woman took the baby and saw the injuries, and said that Scholz assaulted her, the affidavit stated.

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