WARREN - Prosecutors on Monday dismissed charges against a church day-care worker who was accused of killing a 3-month-old boy under her care.
Sarah Kaiser, 30, of Southington, had faced charges of murder, felonious assault and endangering children.
Kaiser was indicted last December, accused in the death of Jacob F. Culp of Newton Falls while working at the Church of God Day Care Center in June 2011.
The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide and in a report said Culp died of a lack of oxygen to the brain due to blunt force cranial trauma.
In a motion filed by Trumbull Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, it was pointed out that after Kaiser was indicted, attorneys for Kaiser and assistant prosecutors learned that experts both for the prosecution and defense believe that Jacob was the victim of physical abuse in the weeks prior to his death.
And the experts could not testify to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that any injury was inflicted on Jacob on June 1 - the day he was hospitalized. He died June 6.
Dr. Lisa Kohler, the chief medical examiner in Summit County who performed the autopsy, said that rib fractures and older subdural bleeding were ''weeks'' old at the time of Jacob's death, according to Watkins motion.
Dr. Janice Ophoven, hired by the prosecution, and Dr. Cyril Wecht, hired by the defense, agreed that once subdural blood is deposited in the subdural space, recurrent bleeding can occur without significant repeat trauma.
''Both (attorney) Matt Pentz and myself think the Prosecutor's Office did the right thing. There was a three-week window of time when any number of people could have had contact with the baby,'' said attorney Al Matavich, who represents Kaiser along with Pentz.
Charges against Kaiser were dropped without prejudice, meaning they could be re-filed. But Watkins' motion makes it clear that the murder case remains open for the time being.
Watkins said in the release that Jacob's parents and all the employees at the day care were interviewed and Jacob's parents each took, and passed, two polygraph exams.
Kaiser, the motion states, failed an unstipulated polygraph exam. But an attorney she had prior to Pentz and Matavich refused to allow her to answer questions during a post-polygraph interview. The initial attorney also refused to allow Kaiser to testify before a grand jury.
''This may never be prosecutable because of the delay between the injury and the death,'' another expert told the medical examiner, according to Watkins' motion.
Watkins' motion says prosecutors would be unable to prove Kaiser guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
''This is a rare occurrence. But it's our duty as ministers of justice. We are always willing to re-evaluate cases when new information comes to light,'' Watkins said Monday.
Kaiser, of 4836 McConnell East Road, had remained free on $500,000 bond and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. She reportedly worked at the day-care center in Newton Falls for about 10 years and has no criminal record.
Early on, Matavich called Kaiser's case ''defensible'' and the reason he contacted Wecht, a renowned pathologist, professor and author who has offered writings and theories in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, the death of Elvis Presley, O.J. Simpson's murder trial and more recently, Whitney Houston's drowning / overdose.
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