dme court

A Butler County Common Pleas Court judge said she will issue a ruling next week on the county’s appeal of a state Office of Open Records determination that the county must release the name of a 2-month-old boy who died Nov. 8.

Judge Kelley Streib heard arguments Friday in the county’s appeal of the Office of Open Records’ granting of a Right-to-Know Law request filed by Tribune-Review reporter Justin Vellucci to obtain the name of the boy, whose father has been charged with homicide.

Police said the baby’s father, Vincent Miceli, 32, of Butler Township, was caring for the child in the family’s Spooner Drive home when the baby’s mother called 911 from work to report that her son was not breathing, according to township police.

Police responded and knocked several times before Miceli answered the door in a towel saying he had just gotten out of the shower. Police said when Miceli saw officers outside his residence, he decided to take a shower before answering the door.

Paramedics responded and tended to the baby, who was lying nude on a couch in the living room and not breathing, police said. One of the paramedics reported finding bruises on the boy’s head and torso. The child was then transported to Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Miceli told police the boy had been under his care since around 11 a.m. He brought the boy along when he drove the mother to work and returned home around 11:25 a.m. He said he fed the baby around noon and the boy napped on the couch until around 1:30 p.m.

He said he played with the boy after the nap and then he noticed a small bruise on the boy’s head, but didn’t know how it got there. He then got the boy’s bottle from the kitchen and found the bruise was bigger and the infant was shaking when he returned.

Miceli said he called the child’s mother at work to inform her of her son’s condition, and she called 911. The baby’s mother told police she fed and changed the boy that morning and did not see any bruising or abnormal behavior.

The coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide. An autopsy determined the baby’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

Police charged Miceli with homicide, aggravated assault of a victim less than 6 years old and endangering the welfare of children. The charges were held for court at a preliminary hearing in December and the case is pending in Common Pleas Court.

The county’s open records office denied the right-to-know request Vellucci submitted Nov. 19 seeking the boy’s name. The Tribune-Review appealed that decision to the state Office of Open Records, which granted the appeal and ordered the county to disclose the information. The county appealed that decision to Common Pleas Court.

Attorney Michael Hnath, who is representing the county, appeared at the hearing with Coroner Korynne Young.

Hnath argued that a section of the state Judicial Code prohibits court officers and employees from disclosing the name of a minor victim during the prosecution of case involving sexual or physical abuse and bars them from publicly releasing documents containing the minor victim’s name. Violations are punishable as third-degree misdemeanor, he said.

Attorney Joseph Lawrence, who is representing Vellucci and the Tribune-Review, countered, saying the section of the Judicial Code cited by the county does not apply to coroner’s records and the Right-to-Know Law mandates public access to the name, cause and manner of death regardless of the decedent's age.

He said the section of the Judicial Code cited by the county does not mention the coroner’s office, but the coroner’s office is included in the Right-to-Know Law.

Hnath said the code bars public disclosure of any record of a minor’s name.

Streib said she would render a decision by the end of the day Thursday, May 7.