27-year-old Oregon man Markell Hilaire has been arrested and charged with assault and criminal mistreatment for allegedly beating a one-year-old baby he had been babysitting, following intense public outcry over the case.
As Live Action News covered, Joshua Marbury and his wife came home one night to find their son Jacob bruised from being struck in the face by his babysitter’s hand. His story went viral after the father wrote a Facebook post explaining that, after two months, authorities still had not arrested Hilaire, ostensibly because a 2012 court ruling made it too hard to prove assault if the victim cannot articulate experiencing pain.
Following the media attention, Hilaire was finally arrested and charged, and currently sits in Washington County Jail, with bail set at $10,000. According to the Sherwood Police Department, the case is currently under investigation under the supervision of the Washington County District Attorney’s office, which issued the following statement:
Although charges were filed in this particular case, the need to fix Oregon law to protect vulnerable victims remains. Under current Oregon law, animals are more protected from physical injury than many children.
As Live Action previously covered, some in pro-abortion media attempted to blame pro-life politicians for the incident, arguing that legislation to protect preborn children took attention away from the need to amend Oregon law for cases like this. However, such spin failed to account for the fact that the NARAL gives Oregon an A grade as the sixth most pro-abortion state in America.
