A 19-year-old Waipahu woman admitted causing multiple fractures to her 5-month-old son when she picked him up by the arms and shook him, a police officer testified. Child abuse case
sent to Circuit Court
By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comRanalynn Tachibana is charged with three counts of second-degree assault. Doctors at Kapiolani Medical Center discovered fresh fractures to the baby's skull, left elbow, left forearm and right shoulder blade on Oct. 26.
Tachibana and her mother took the boy to the hospital to have a lump on his head examined, said Deputy City Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado yesterday during a preliminary hearing. Doctors also discovered older fractures to ribs on both sides of his body.
After initially claiming that the injuries occurred when her 3-year-old niece dropped the boy on two occasions, Tachibana admitted she caused the injuries, Honolulu police Detective Rohn Hamasaki said. However, Tachibana insisted her niece caused the skull fracture when she dropped the boy, he said.
The boy underwent surgery to his left elbow and is out of the hospital with his grandmother, Arrisgado said. The skull fracture, which did not affect the boy's brain, and the other injuries are being left to heal on their own, he said.
Following the hearing, District Judge James Dannenberg sent the case to trial in Circuit Court.
