Dad Takes To Facebook For Help Prosecuting The Babysitter He Claims Abused His Child

Parents turn to social media for help when prosecutors won’t file charges against babysitter who abused their child

Two months ago, Joshua Marbury’s one-year-old son Jacob was found screaming in his bed when he and Jacob’s mother Alicia Quinney returned home from an evening out. The babysitter in charge of caring for him was asleep on the couch. The next morning they awoke to find Jacob covered in bruises.

They took him to the hospital where doctors observed his injuries and social workers took photos. The doctors even alerted him to a handprint n the child’s face. “I saw the evidence…There’s no denying what he did,” Marbury told KPTV Fox 12. Still, Marbury claims the Washington County District Attorney insists the case cannot be prosecuted.

Marbury, understandably frustrated, took to social media to see if he could generate enough outrage to get the prosecutors to listen.

“I normally keep my matters with family very private,” the post begins. But this is different.” He insists that not only did doctors insist they made out a handprint bruise on the child’s face, a detective said it “could have killed him.”

The reason the prosecutors are not rushing to build a case can likely be attributed to the way Oregon law is written surrounding child abuse cases. An Oregon prosecutor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told WTOL 11, “child abuse cases are often very difficult to prosecute, because of the way Oregon law is written. State statute requires a prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt there substantial pain and serious physical injury to the child, and when there is no witness to the act and the child is too young to say he or she was in pain, the burden of proof is high.”

“After TWO months of waiting we only find out that charges are dropped BECAUSE my one year old cannot tell you verbally he was abused and my son did not show he was in pain OR that this person “intentionally” did this,” writes Marbury. “I did my part with GOD and your “advise” [sic] to not recourse to my own action with revenge. DO YOUR PART, you have a verbal confession and evidence showing a hand print!!!! A dead body cant tell you who killed them. Yet a baby isn’t held to the same standard because he cant talk????”

“Something needs to be done,” he ends his post. “NOBODY can just hit a child and more to just get away with it because the child can’t verbally tell you.”