A Butler Township woman was charged with simple assault, endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment for allegedly breaking the arm of a 3-year-old child.

Court documents state that Patience A. Budmark, 20, of Spring Street was baby-sitting her boyfriend's son July 26 on Chesapeake Street in Lyndora when the child suffered a spiral fracture of his lower arm.

The boy was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted.

Detective Max Wittlinger of the Butler Township Police wrote in his report that he received information from ChildLine, the child abuse hot line, that originated from UPMC Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, where the boy was transferred.

The information indicated that in addition to the spiral fracture, the child had bruising on his forehead, right cheek, left arm, right upper thigh and multiple bruises on the lower legs.

Budmark, then 19, gave a county Children and Youth Services caseworker two different stories about the child falling off the toilet and injuring his arm.

On Aug. 3, Wittlinger interviewed Budmark at the police station, where Budmark told him the boy had begun potty training a few weeks before and “it was not going well.”

Budmark told Wittlinger she left the bathroom to get a diaper because the boy refused to defecate in the toilet, when she heard a noise and returned to the bathroom to find the boy had fallen to his left, yet had his right arm “weaved” into a stand between the toilet and bathtub.

Budmark said she heard a “snap” like a pretzel rod breaking as she tried to untangle the child's arm from its position in the stand.

“During that interview, Budmark could not accurately explain how (the child) fell to the left off the toilet and got his right arm 'weaved' in the stand,” Wittlinger wrote in his report.

Wittlinger confirmed with a Butler Memorial Hospital doctor that the break in the child's arm was not consistent with a fall from the toilet.

On Sept. 10, Wittlinger received photos from the Child Advocacy Center of UPMC Children's Hospital taken shortly after the boy's medical treatment on July 26.

“They show the multiple bruises that are documented as being suspected child abuse,” Wittlinger wrote.

On Sept. 15, Wittlinger conducted a second interview with Budmark, in which she stated that the boy had fallen off the toilet a completely different direction and ended up in a position that she could not replicate when asked to do so by another Butler Township police detective.

The documents also state that the boy's biological mother, who was present at both hospitals during the boy's care, heard Budmark shouting at the boy's father that he did not need to remain at the hospital because the boy's mother could handle the situation.

Further, the boy's mother told police that when she called Budmark on the night of the incident to confront her about her son's injuries, Budmark told her he fell off the toilet and broke his arm on the bathtub.

Budmark is awaiting a preliminary hearing Nov. 19 before District Judge Kevin O'Donnell.

Budmark also was charged in a separate incident Aug. 3 with possession of a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after Butler Township officers were called to a Chesapeake Street home for a reported domestic dispute.

She pleaded guilty before District Judge Kevin O'Donnell in that case and is awaiting sentencing on the marijuana possession charge, as the paraphernalia charge was dropped.

In June 2019, Budmark pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment by subjecting another to physical harm, according to court records.