Ramsey County authorities have dropped charges against a St. Paul man previously accused of harming a 2-year-old girl.
The Ramsey County attorney’s office declined to go into detail about what prompted the dismissal of the case against Oscar Amaya the same week it was scheduled to go to trial. They did say it needs more police work.
“We received additional information that merits further investigation,” said Dennis Gehardstein, office spokesman.
Amaya’s attorney, Jeremy Plesha, said investigators hastily and unfairly homed in on his client as the culprit when evidence pointed elsewhere.
“I think the investigator just turned a blind eye to who the real culprits were here,” Plesha said. He added that there was evidence to suggest that the child suffered abuse long before “Oscar Amaya ever entered the picture.”
Amaya, 22, was dating the child’s mother in the winter of 2018 when she brought her 2-year-old girl to Children’s Hospital for treatment of a red mark on her head as well as a bump that resembled an “egg,” according to the criminal complaint against Amaya.
Doctors discovered bruises all over the child’s body, including her eyes, ribs, legs and back, as well as injuries to her tongue, nose and head.
She was diagnosed with a complex skull fracture that authorities said would “likely cause permanent impairment of the function of (her) brain.”