WISN: Baby Home, Recovering in a Brace from Suspected Abuse by Father

A 2-month-old Wauwatosa girl is recovering from severe injuries that police and prosecutors say were intentionally caused by her father, Marcel Malone of Milwaukee.

Patch's media partners at WISN 12 News were able to locate the girl's mother, Donna Grafton, and learned that her baby daughter, Mariah is doing OK – but it's too soon to tell whether she will suffer any lasting injuries.

WISN will have a story at 6 p.m. with video of Grafton and Mariah.

Mariah is in a brace, 12 News reports, partially immobilized as she recovers from a fractured leg and brain bleeding.

Grafton took Mariah to Children's Hospital on July 18 when she came home after Malone had been watching her that morning. Mariah wouldn't stop crying, and Grafton thought she needed to be changed. When she pulled her pants down, she saw that the infant's leg was badly swollen.

Grafton, who had known Malone for about two years, said that at first she couldn't and didn't want to believe Malone could have hurt Mariah. Then a Wauwatosa police told her Malone in fact had a history of child abuse and neglect – including one case that resulted in the death of a child.

Grafton told WISN reporter Hillary Mintz, "When I heard about him being a child abuser or had cases like this, I'm like, 'Are you serious officer? No, no, don't tell me, I never knew this."

Malone had been arrested long before for having sexual intercourse with a child and for child abuse, and also for child neglect with the consequence of death, detectives said after reviewing his criminal record.

"I don't know what to say no more," Grafton told Mintz. "I don't understand him, like I didn't even know he was like that. I just don't understand ... how you do this to my baby."

Malone, 26, faces a preliminary hearing on Friday. He is charged with child neglect and aggravated child abuse and could spend up to 46 years in prison if convicted.

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