Jurors hear interview in manslaughter case

AUBURN – Jurors heard a taped interview with investigators in which a Lisbon woman on trial for manslaughter said her 21-month-old son fell in the bathtub and in his bedroom before she discovered he was unconscious.

Sarah Allen, her husband, Jeremy, and a juror were in tears by the time the 45-minute tape ended in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

The interview played for jurors Thursday took place in a small room at Maine Medical Center in Portland the morning after Nathaniel Allen was rushed to the hospital with severe head and neck injuries.

The boy was on life support with only hours left to live when his mother, then 28, sat down to talk with a Maine State Police detective, a Department of Human Services caseworker and a child-abuse expert.

She described the boy falling twice in the bathtub and then again in the bedroom before dialing 911 when she realized he was unconscious.

Allen’s lawyer, Verne Paradie, hopes to convince the jury that the boy was injured and eventually died as a result of those falls, not as result of being shaken by his mother on Feb. 14, 2003, as the state alleges.

On the tape, Allen told investigators that the day started off fine. Her husband, a sailor at Brunswick Naval Air Station, was away on business, and she said she and her son danced to ’50s music during breakfast at Denny’s.

Then, Allen told the investigators, the day took a turn. It began in the evening when Nathaniel rubbed applesauce in his hair.

She said the boy, who was screaming uncontrollably in the bathtub, slipped twice and hit his head both times. Later, he fell again in the bedroom and hit his head on the carpet during what she described as a “diaper battle.”

She said he went to sleep for an hour and that she didn’t realize that there was a problem until she sat him on the floor and accidentally brushed up against him with her hip. “He literally went forward and landed on his head, like he fainted or something,” Allen told investigators.

It was at that point, Allen said, that she realized the boy was unconscious and she called 911. “It happened very fast,” she said on the tape. “I’m wracking my brain to remember exactly what happened.”

Allen’s trial is expected to last more than two weeks. Her husband, Jeremy, faces a charge of assault in connection with the bruises found on the boy’s thighs and buttocks. His trial is scheduled for June 28.