Navajo Nation man charged with child abuse resulting in great harm of 6-year-old

Theisman Tsosie, 26, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico, pled guilty on November 5 in federal court in Albuquerque to a child abuse charge.  Under the terms of his plea agreement, Tsosie will be sentenced to 60 months in federal prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.

Tsosie was arrested on February 23 and charged in a federal criminal complaint with slapping and kicking a six-year-old Navajo child requiring that the victim be sent to the hospital.  According to court documents, the victim suffered multiple injuries including:

… a complex occipital skull fracture, bruising on the face, abrasion on the left hip, bruise on the inner thigh, scab on the scalp, bruise on the left ear, linear bruise with quality of an overlying abrasion on the right cheek and jaw, scab on the chin, bruise on the right cheek, injured lip with bruising, bruise under the left nostril, bruise under the nasal bridge, bruise with abrasion under the left eye, bruise with abrasion on the left forehead and left eyebrow area, and a large left posterior flank contusion.

Tsosie was subsequently indicted on March 13 and charged with abandonment or abuse of a child resulting in great bodily harm.  According to the indictment, Tsosie committed the offense on February 21 on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County.

That six-year-old boy was the son of Tsosie’s girlfriend, according to court documents.

During the court proceedings, Tsosie pled guilty to a charge of assault resulting in substantial bodily injury.  In entering the guilty plea, Tsosie admitted that on February 21, he pushed and hit a child that child, resulting in the victim sustaining a fractured skull and other contusions and abrasions.

Tsosie remains in custody pending a formal sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.

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This case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI and the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety.  The case against Tsosie was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

(Source: Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Mexico)

~ Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter