Boston, Jan. 28, 2013 – A Roxbury man was charged today with abusing an infant and the child’s mother, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

STEVEN VELASQUEZ (D.O.B. 5/27/93) was arraigned in South Boston District Court on three separate dockets charging him with four counts of assault and battery on a child causing injury and two counts of assault and battery. Assistant District Attorney David Newton requested Velasquez be held on $101,000 bail and be ordered to stay away from the victims. He also asked that Velasquez’s bail be revoked on an open case out of Boston Municipal Court in which he is charged with larceny from a person.

Judge Annette Forde set bail at $50,500 and granted both requests.

According to prosecutors, a 2-month-old boy related to Velasquez was taken to Children’s Hospital on Jan. 22 with a broken rib, two bite marks on his right arm, and a third bite mark on the inner left leg. Prosecutors said that Velasquez squeezed the child hard enough to break his rib. These injuries were believed to have been inflicted between Jan. 12 and Jan. 14, prosecutors said.

Police responded to the victim’s home on Old Colony Avenue on Jan. 22 after being notified of the alleged abuse, prosecutors said. The victim was transported by ambulance to Children’s Hospital.

Velasquez was arrested on Jan. 25 on a default warrant issued out of Roxbury District Court for violation of an abuse prevention order and assault and battery.
The following day, the victim’s mother, a 21-year-old South Boston woman, told police that Velasquez had punched her in the face twice three weeks earlier, on Jan. 1, prosecutors said.

Velasquez has previously faced charges of violating a restraining order. At each proceeding, prosecutors requested Velasquez be held on bail and that he be ordered to stay away from the victim. At the time of his most recent arrest, Velasquez did not have open domestic related charges and there was no restraining order in place, prosecutors said.

Velasquez is represented by Arthur A. Shabo. He will return to court on Feb. 19.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.