A Chicago man faces decades in prison for neglect after another child told a social worker in October they were told to lie in initial interviews with police.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah Thompson, 33, is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury, a Level 1 felony; aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony; and obstruction of justice, a Level 5 felony.<\/p>\n
His case was unsealed Monday. He is in custody, held on a $12,000 cash bond.<\/p>\n
Gary Detective Sean Melendez wrote that police responded at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 24 to Methodist Hospital Northlake in Gary. A nurse told the officer that the mother, Lashaunda Castleberry, said the 21-month-old boy was having \u201cstomach problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he was examined, hospital staff found burns on his cheeks, abdomen and thigh. His right eye was swollen and bruised.<\/p>\n
During a Zoom video meeting on Aug. 25, University of Chicago Dr. Kimberly Schwartz told investigators the child had brain bleeding and swelling. He underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. He had multiple strokes due to his injuries.<\/p>\n
Both hands were fractured, as well as his wrist, femur and foot. The injuries happened at different points in the past few weeks. She also noted possible fractures to five vertebrae and a \u201cvisual shortening\u201d of his spine.<\/p>\n
He also had bruises on his abdomen, groin and thighs.<\/p>\n
The burns were likely either \u201cinduced\u201d or \u201cchemical.\u201d The boy had a burn on his right thigh that looked like \u201cbranding\u201d from a cigarette lighter.<\/p>\n
Castleberry was charged in August with neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury, a Level 1 felony. Her trial is currently set for February.<\/p>\n
An Indiana Department of Child Services caseworker interviewed Castleberry\u2019s other son, 11. The boy told her that his brother fell off his bed, then later said it was their mother\u2019s bed, charges state. The boy was mostly sleeping in the last two days. 911 was called that morning after the boy wasn\u2019t breathing correctly, he said.<\/p>\n
The caseworker removed the children from Castleberry\u2019s custody and sent them to live with a relative. Castleberry later claimed her 11-year-old punched the baby after he took the other boy\u2019s iPad.<\/p>\n
By October, a child told a DCS social worker that \u201cRed\u201d \u2014 later identified as Thompson \u2014 was the one who \u201cbeat up\u201d the 21-month-old boy. He \u201cassaulted\u201d Castleberry, the 21-month-old boy and another child.<\/p>\n
Castleberry appeared to try to hide the baby\u2019s injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to get this stuff straight for the police,\u201d Thompson said later, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
A witness told investigators that they weren\u2019t sure who the child\u2019s father was. \u201cRed\u201d appeared to have been recently shot and used a walker. Police records showed Thompson was shot in the hip and knee in June 2024.<\/p>\n
Post-Tribune archives contributed.<\/p>\n
mcolias@post-trib.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Chicago man faces decades in prison for neglect after another child told a social worker in October…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":249542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5295,56951,33131,30214,56952,38106,56953,5386,1818,2862,4010,728,56954,56955,50,56956,56957,56950,56958],"class_list":{"0":"post-355939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-crown-point","11":"tag-east-chicago","12":"tag-gary","13":"tag-griffith","14":"tag-hammond","15":"tag-highland","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-illinois","18":"tag-indiana","19":"tag-lake-county","20":"tag-local-news","21":"tag-merrillville","22":"tag-munster","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-portage","25":"tag-porter-county","26":"tag-post-tribune","27":"tag-valparaiso"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115493646284619236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}