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Crime & Safety

Waukesha Woman Accused of Shaking, Injuring Infant

Flight for Life was called to take baby to seek medical treatment, criminal complaint states.

A 28-year-old Waukesha woman is facing child abuse charges for allegedly shaking a baby so hard while watching it that the baby stopped breathing and needed to be transported to the hospital via Flight for Life, according to a criminal complaint.

Maria E. Rangel was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court Tuesday with one count of physical abuse of a child and causing great bodily harm. If convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a house in the 300 block of Darlene Drive Thursday after it was reported there was an infant with no pulse and not breathing. The child was transported to the hospital where medical personnel discovered numerous injuries within the infant, including two skull fractures, swelling on the brain and a mid-right side tibia fracture.

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Rangel initially denied causing injury to the infant, the complaint states, saying she discovered it wasn’t breathing when she went to feed it, so she called the baby’s mother who came over and began to shake him to wake him up.

Rangel then told investigators the infant’s head accidentally hit the door of the refrigerator while she was holding him and she then lost grip of the infant who fell on the floor.

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She eventually admitted to squeezing and shaking the baby, the complaint states, because the infant continued to cry.

Rangel is currently being held in Waukesha County Jail on $250,000 cash bond.

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