Mentone man jailed for alleged battery on child

A Mentone man was arrested Thursday for a February 2023 incident in which an infant had to be flown to a Fort Wayne hospital for medical treatment.
Kaiden Eugene Meade, 20, of 506 N. Broadway St., Mentone, was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 3 p.m. Thursday on a preliminary charge of battery on a person under 14 years of age. His bond was set at $21,000.
According to the probable cause affidavit, at 11:03 p.m. on February 26, 2023, a Kosciusko County Sheriff's Office deputy was dispatched to a residence in reference to a traumatized infant. Upon arrival, the deputy was greeted in the living room by Kaiden Meade and his mother. When asked what happened, Meade told the deputy and a paramedic that he put his child to bed at 9:30 p.m., then at 10:30 p.m. the child woke up being fussy. When Meade went to pick up the child, he began to lay him on top of the crib. Meade told the deputy he grabbed the child to keep him from falling, and when he grabbed the child, the child's neck snapped back.
Court documents say Meade told the deputy he noticed the child was moving his arms differently and his eyes were different. Meade further stated that he woke his mother and called the baby's mother, who was at work.
The deputy asked Meade about the cuts on his knuckles that were scabbed over. Kaiden responded that a few weeks ago he was arguing with the baby's mother and he went out and hit the shed.
During the police investigation, the child's mother arrived from work and spoke to the deputy about Meade. The deputy asked if Meade had ever been aggressive and the mother replied, “no, never towards the baby.” She said Meade was sometimes aggressive when angry and was currently undergoing mental health counseling. The deputy noticed there appeared to be a hole in the bedroom door and the child's mother said Meade punched the wall. She also told the deputy that Meade had had a seizure the week before.
At the hospital, Meade made comments in the presence of another KCSO deputy that were captured on a body camera. Meade told police he picked the child up from the crib and as they went into the other room he tripped over a baby gate in the doorway. Meade said when he tripped, he lost the child and began to drop him. He said he grabbed the child to stop him from falling and that's when the child's head rolled back. He said he did not let the child touch the ground.
While speaking with officers, Meade was approached by medical personnel who advised that the child would need to be flown to a Fort Wayne hospital to expedite treatment. Meade and the child's mother would have to travel by land due to lack of space.
A KCSO detective interviewed the paramedic who said Meade told him and the first deputy that he picked up the child and lost his grip, and that the child almost fell into the crib . The paramedic said Meade said that when he grabbed the child to stop him from falling, the child's head rolled back. There was no mention of Meade tripping over a baby gate. Additionally, the paramedic indicated that while the paramedic was preparing Meade and the child's mother to be taken by ambulance, they had to tell the two men to stop arguing or they would be removed from the ambulance . Meade got into the ambulance and the mother followed him in a separate vehicle, according to court documents.
The child was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne for a brain hemorrhage. The child's medical team believed that the child suffered from preretinal, intraretinal, and subretinal hemorrhages as well as a subdural hematoma. The diagnosis was that the injuries were not accidental and inconsistent with the story given by Meade. The files were sent to the child protection team at Riley Hospital and their evaluation concluded that the traumatic history proposed to explain the child's injuries does not adequately explain the constellation of injuries of the child. The findings regarding the child's injuries are more indicative of a non-accidental or self-inflicted injury, the probable cause affidavit states.
During the investigation, the KCSO detective also learned of a previous incident in which the child had previously suffered an unexplained facial injury while in Meade's care, which Meade said was occurred while he was sleeping with the child. At the time this facial injury was sustained, Meade and the child's mother were living with his parents. They then left that residence and moved in with Meade's mother and sister.