Brutally Beaten Baby Left Legally Blind, ‘Basically Paralyzed’: Mom

Susan Jones had always thought of her husband as a wonderful father, one who doted on their sons and took even more photos of them than she did. But when her younger boy was hospitalized with a severely damaged brain, she immediately suspected her baby had suffered at his dad’s hands.

“As a mother, I knew something was wrong,” Jones said.

Jones, a 30-year-old registered nurse, was working the midnight shift at a hospital in Merrillville, Indiana, when her husband, 47-year-old Curtis Ray Jones, called to tell her that their 7-month-old son, Braxson was cold, stiff, unable to open his eyes and was breathing abnormally, but that she shouldn’t be concerned because “he’s OK.”

Braxson was taken to a hospital in Hobart, Indiana. His father was employed there while he pursued a nursing degree, Susan Jones said. Before that, she said, he worked in sales for Comcast, and prior to that, was a Porter County, Indiana, deputy. Curtis Ray Jones was a cop from 1996 until he resigned in 2005, according to his former department.

“All he ever told me was, ‘I left for political reasons,’” Susan Jones said.

When he arrived at the hospital in Hobart, Braxson was in such a bad way that he was transported to Lurie Children’s hospital in Chicago. He was in a coma for eight days, Susan Jones said, and he contracted meningitis.

“It was just absolutely horrific,” Susan Jones said.

“They said he was going to die,” she said. “For whatever reason, my son made it.”

Susan Jones had to leave her job as a nurse so she could stay with her son while he was hospitalized in Chicago. In the nine months since he was injured, he has undergone five surgeries and needs a sixth, she said, is legally blind, “basically paralyzed” and needs a feeding tube.

“They don’t think he will ever speak … or walk,” she said, telling how only 10 percent of her son’s brain tissue is healthy.

Months passed with Braxson clinging to life but remaining in dire condition — and without anyone facing criminal charges for allegedly harming him. Susan Jones said she blamed her husband from the beginning and claims the Porter County Sheriff’s Department and prosecutors dragged their feet during the investigation.

Susan Jones called the county’s involvement in the investigation a “complete conflict of interest,” and said, “I don’t think Porter County should have taken the case because that’s where he worked. He knew one of the detectives for more than 20 years. They worked together at Wal-Mart” before they were deputies.

Conflict or not, Porter County prosecutors filed felony charges of battery to a child younger than 14, aggravated battery and neglect of a dependent against Curtis Ray Jones on April 13. They went to arrest him where he was residing at the home of his aunt and uncle — down the road from where he lived with his wife and children before they separated — but found out he had actually moved in with his new girlfriend, all the way over in Mokena, Susan Jones said.

The Mokena police took Curtis Ray Jones into custody. He was booked into the Will County jail and then shipped back to Indiana. And then he was released on bond that was put up, Susan Jones said, by the new girlfriend.

A voicemail message left for Lendi and Curtis Ray Jones requesting comment on Susan Jones’ allegations received no response.

Susan Jones now harbors fears about how her husband’s case will play out in court.

“I don’t want the judge to slap him on the wrist,” she said.

“I only feel like he was charged because I harassed (the authorities) so much,” Susan Jones said.

But while she wants to see Braxson’s father punished, she remembers how Curtis Ray Jones was with his boys before that night in July.

“He was such a good father,” she said.

“I will never know what happened or why.”

Baby Braxson in the hospital, 24 hours after he was injured | submitted image