Hearing Begins in Child Abuse Charges

A preliminary hearing began Monday for Gabriela and Rogelio Hernandez, the Oxnard parents accused of killing their 2-year-old daughter, Joselin, last year.

Monday’s hearing concerned separate charges that the couple had abused the girl on previous occasions.

Although the parents are already facing murder and felony child abuse charges in connection with the toddler’s death, prosecutors filed separate abuse charges for the earlier incidents.

On Monday, one of the two Oxnard police officers who responded to a medical emergency call at the Hernandez home in July 1994 testified about injuries he observed on the baby’s body.

Officer Robert Coughlin said Joselin had week-old burns on her hands and feet and scratches on her head and neck. The child’s father had called authorities seeking an ambulance.

“He stated that he thought his baby’s ribs were broken,” Coughlin said.

When officers questioned Rogelio Hernandez about the baby’s burns, he told them she had touched a car battery attached to audio equipment in the family’s living room, Coughlin said.

But when questioned by prosecutor Dee Corona about his investigation of that claim, Coughlin testified that he believed Rogelio was lying.

“Based on the location of the injuries on the child and placement of the battery,” Coughlin said, “I find it physically impossible for the child to receive those injuries in the manner in which Mr. Hernandez described.”

Earlier in Monday’s hearing, Gabriela Hernandez requested a new attorney, and Rogelio Hernandez asked that the hearing be postponed while his family seeks a private attorney to represent him. Both requests were denied.