The man charged with brutally beating his girlfriend’s son to within inches of his life was held without bail on Wednesday, as more details emerged about the boy’s injuries, according to court records.
Three-year-old Jaden Jordan remained in critical condition on Thursday, but suffered permanent brain damage. He was in “grave condition and likely to die,” according to court records.
The case comes as several city officials vow to investigate the Administration for Children’s Services, whose case worker received an anonymous tip about the abuse of Jordan over the weekend. But when the ACS worker went to investigate, they realized they were given the wrong address, an agency spokesman said, and didn’t get the correct one until Monday.
Salvatore Lucchesse, 24, was charged with several offenses, including assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child, according to court records.
Lucchesse allegedly told investigators he put Jordan in the shower after the boy defecated in his pants, but that Jordan fell and hit his head, a law enforcement source said. But the story was inconsistent with Jordan’s injuries, police said.
Jordan suffered a fractured skull as well as lacerations to his spleen and liver, law enforcement sources said.
He also suffered a brain injury, consistent with suffocation, strangulation, or shaking, according to the criminal complaint. This led to a lack of oxygen in his brain.
He was found after his mom, Raven Hayes, also 24, called police to their Gravesend home about 4:30 p.m. on Monday, cops said.
On Wednesday, Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters said in a statement he requested access to ACS records involving Jordan as part of his prior investigation into the agency. The DOI issued a report in May, highlighting “ACS’s investigatory and foster care oversight failures.”
