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SALT LAKE CITY — A Cottonwood Heights man is in jail after police say he abused his 4-month-old son, fracturing the boy's legs and a rib.
Phillip Ralph Wiles, 22, faces four counts of second-degree felony child abuse in connection with injuries sustained by his son between Dec. 20 and Jan. 21, according to charges filed Thursday in 3rd District Court.
The boy was taken by ambulance to Primary Children's Medical Center on Jan. 22 with bruises on his face, back, buttocks and right leg, charges state.
The boy also had a hemorrhage in the white of his right eye, an injury doctors determined likely was caused by blunt force trauma to the eye, according to the documents.
Doctors also found older injuries on the boy that had started to heal, including a rib fracture that was likely two to three weeks old. Doctors said the injury was consistent with violent squeezing of a baby's ribcage, the charges state.
Multiple fractures of the boy's legs also were found, including fractures of his left femur just above the knee, his left tibia just below the knee and just above the ankle, and his right tibia just below the knee, according to the charges.
Wiles told medical personnel and police that the boy had fallen off the couch and off his lap under his care. The father also said he had playfully thrown the child up in the air but failed to catch him, resulting in the boy hitting the floor, charges state.
Doctors told police Wiles' explanations of the injuries did not adequately account for the child's physical condition.
Wiles is being held in Salt Lake County Jail on $200,000 bail.
E-mail: jpage@desnews.com
