Man Arrested Over False Claims of Harm to Infant

A man who claimed that hospital nurses injured his newborn daughter because she is black has been arrested by FBI agents on charges of filing a false report to pave the way for filing a lawsuit.

Jerry Eugene Lucas, 43, of Rosamond was arrested in Lancaster on charges of making a false statement to a federal agency, Gary G. Auer, who supervises the FBI’s Lancaster office, said Monday. Lucas was being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, pending a bail hearing Thursday.

The arrest, made Friday without incident, stemmed from a civil rights complaint that Lucas filed Oct. 13 at the FBI’s Los Angeles office, Auer said. In that complaint, Lucas alleged that nurses at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center had harmed his daughter because of her race at the time of her birth one month earlier.

Lucas told authorities that the child received bruises, a swollen right eye and fingernail marks on her body during her stay at the hospital.

A day after the complaint was filed, Lucas repeated these allegations to FBI Agent John R. Schafer, who viewed the child and urged the family to obtain further medical treatment for her, Auer said.

The staff at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles determined that the baby had a broken collarbone, the FBI supervisor said. Investigators reviewed Antelope Valley Hospital records, which showed that the child had been released in good health Sept. 26.

When Schafer interviewed Lucas again on Oct. 22, the Rosamond man admitted that his daughter’s injuries occurred as a result of a household accident after the baby left the hospital, Auer said.

Lucas also told the agent that he had filed the civil rights complaint “in an effort to support an anticipated lawsuit against the hospital,” Auer said.

Beverly Greer, vice president of Antelope Valley Hospital, said Monday that her institution had cooperated during the federal investigation. “The FBI handled this very capably and efficiently,” she said. “We are, of course, very pleased to be vindicated.”

Auer said the FBI has notified local authorities, who must decide whether any charges are warranted in connection with the child’s injuries.

“That’s not in the federal jurisdiction,” the FBI supervisor said. “What we’re charging is a false statement made to a federal government agency.”

If Lucas is convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $10,000, federal officials said.