Expert testifies on injuries to Haleigh Poutre's brain

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD -- Displaying black-and-white digital images of Haleigh Poutre's wounded brain, a Springfield radiologist testified today that only an event as severe as a "high-velocity motor vehicle accident" could explain the degree of her head injuries, and not even a tumble down a set of stairs could produce that level of neurological trauma.

During the first week of testimony in the child abuse trial of Poutre's stepfather, Jason Strickland, Dr. Richard Hicks, a radiologist at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, responded to questions by prosecutor Laurel Brandt who tried to show that only violent abuse, probably sometime on Sept. 10, 2005, would explain the 11-year-old girl's condition when she was rushed by her family a day later to Noble Hospital in Westfield.

Hicks told jurors that his review of Haleigh's CT scans and MRI images at Noble and his hospital showed the girl had extensive damage to areas deep within her brain, including her brain stem and corpus callosum, and once such trauma occurred, she would cease to walk, speak or eat.

"Once she suffered the injury, she should be unconscious," he said while showing the jurors dozens of brain scans.

He went on to say that the trauma did not occur the same day that she arrived in a coma at Noble, because the degree of fluid build-up and damage takes time and the violent event most likely took place at least 24 hours before her arrival. Prosecutors have viewed this testimony as critical because defense attorneys have suggested that a babysitter, who watched Haleigh in the few hours before she was rushed to the hospital, may have done something to cause Haleigh's brain injuries.

Hicks also said such injuries could not occur by a simple fall, even down more than a dozen stairs, but are typically seen in babies with shaken-baby syndrome, or children and adults in major car crashes. This testimony is significant because the prosecution has said that Haleigh's younger sister, Samantha Poutre, will testify that she saw her stepfather push Haleigh down the steps on Sept. 10, though Hicks' statement suggests that such an incident alone would not explain the depth of her brain injuries.

This afternoon, the prosecutors presented additional testimony about some objects that might have been used in other violent acts against Haleigh. Two police officers testified about evidence they examined in Haleigh's home shortly after her injuries, including a hammer, screwdriver, and pliers. Prosecutors have also said that blood testing was done on a first-floor bath tub.

Haleigh's adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, was also charged with severely abusing Haleigh, but she is not on trial because she died in a murder-suicide with her grandmother shortly after her arrest. Though the state's child protection agency received at least a dozen complaints that Haleigh might have been the victim of abuse in her home, state social workers, doctors and therapists believed her adoptive mother's word that Haleigh had a psychological disorder causing her to hurt herself.

Haleigh's case attracted national attention after the state nearly pulled her life support while she was unconscious. The girl, now 14, has now recovered to the point where she attends a day school in a Brighton rehabilitation center.

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com

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