Carlsbad Nurse Who Faked Son’s Abuse Gets Jail

A Carlsbad nurse who admitted painting fake injuries on his son’s body as evidence of child abuse in a thwarted attempt to win the boy’s custody was sentenced Tuesday to serve six months in Ventura County Jail.

Thomas Michael Haggerty, 37, pleaded guilty Nov. 2 to one count of presenting false evidence in court. He had submitted to a Ventura County judge last summer a sworn statement that his then 9-year-old son’s stepfather had beaten the boy. At the time, Haggerty was a chiropractor in Simi Valley.

He also submitted color photographs that allegedly showed bruises on the boy during the July 28 court hearing as evidence of the beatings, according to court records. The boy, Micah Haggerty Graves, who is now 10, lives with his mother and stepfather in Orrington, Me., but was visiting his father during the summer.

Bragging Caused Discovery

During a subsequent custody hearing in August, one of Haggerty’s co-workers in Oceanside testified in court that Haggerty had bragged to her that he had drugged his son, had a friend apply the makeup, then took photographs in an effort to gain custody of the boy from his ex-wife, Jeanette P. Graves.

Haggerty had shared custody of the boy with Graves since the couple’s 1983 divorce. Haggerty, a registered nurse, moved to Carlsbad shortly after the divorce.

The co-worker at Tri-City Medical Center, Avis Stahl, who testified that she was upset by Haggerty’s story, secretly tape-recorded a conversation in which he disclosed his scheme. Stahl then took the recording to the Ventura County district attorney.

The boy told district attorney’s investigators that his father had promised to take him to a Caribbean island and buy him presents if he told the judge that he had been beaten by his stepfather.

Haggerty, who has been in jail since his arrest after the Aug. 18 custody hearing, faced a maximum penalty of four years in state prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson said.

In granting the lighter sentence, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath said a prison sentence was not appropriate because Haggerty had no criminal record. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a second charge of perjury.

Haggerty’s defense attorney, Richard Hanawalt, told the judge that Haggerty attempted the scheme because he had failed through the courts to win full custody of his son and saw the boy infrequently since his ex-wife moved to Maine.

Impulses Overtook Logic

“Here was a father whose protective impulses took over his rational thinking,” Hanawalt said.

In a letter submitted to the judge, Haggerty denied giving drugs to the boy but admitted applying the makeup while his son was sleeping.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward F. Brodie told the judge that Haggerty intended to take Micah to the island of Dominica immediately after last summer’s custody hearing, regardless of the outcome. Haggerty had obtained a passport for the boy and had planned to begin medical school there, court records said.

Micah’s mother and stepfather were granted full custody of the boy during last summer’s hearing. None of the family was present for Haggerty’s sentencing.