Man returned to jail on child abuse charge

A Spokane man who had been free on bail was returned to jail this week to await trial on a charge of breaking a 3-month-old baby’s leg on Sept. 27.

It was not immediately clear why a judge issued the $25,000 warrant that brought Scott A. DeCarlo, 24, of 2317 E. Dalke Ave., back to jail Monday. He was arrested in October, a few days after he was charged with one count of second-degree child assault.

Although a hospital birth announcement listed DeCarlo and Amber Donges as parents when Devin Anthony DeCarlo was born June 24, charging documents say five family members had heard Scott DeCarlo yelling at Donges that the infant was a “bastard child” and not his.

DeCarlo reportedly told police he didn’t use that phrase but that the child is not his.

Regardless, police say Donges told them DeCarlo was the primary caregiver for Devin and Donges’ other child while she worked.

Police said she told them Devin had been fussy for a couple of days when DeCarlo called her to say the baby’s left leg was swollen.

X-rays showed the infant’s left thigh was broken, and his right shin bone had been broken one to four weeks earlier. A doctor told police the location of the shin bone break suggested the infant may have been shaken.

Charging documents say DeCarlo admitted to police that he was “very agitated” while changing Devin’s diaper and used too much force when he lifted the baby’s legs to his abdomen.

DeCarlo said Devin immediately stopped crying and “gasped,” police reported.

Police said DeCarlo told them he knew he had “crossed the line” when Devin looked at him as though to ask, “What are you doing to me?”