Two charged with beating 2-year-old
Bridgeview mother also charged with endangering boy’s life, police say
By Steve Metsch
Three residents of Bridgeview have been charged in connection with the beating of a 2-year-old boy, Police Chief Ricardo Mancha said.
Vincent Cisneroz and his girlfriend, Miranda Benner, have both been charged with aggravated battery, police said.
The child’s mother, Lisa Olson, has also been charged with endangering the life of a child for failing to report the abuse when it was observed, police said.
On Oct. 1, at about 8:10 p.m., Bridgeview police were dispatched to an apartment building in the 7400 block of West 71st Street in reference to a battery that had just occurred and also the delayed report of possible child abuse, according to a police news release.
When they arrived, they learned that Olson, the woman who had called 911, had been involved in an argument with her neighbor, Cisneroz, regarding babysitting Olson’s two children, police said.
During that argument, Cisneroz punched and choked Olson, causing her to fall down a flight of stairs, police said. Cisneroz was arrested on the scene without incident, and also charged with aggravated battery to Olson, police said.
Further investigation by police on Oct. 1 revealed that Olson’s 2-year-old son had suffered serious non-life-threatening injuries while in the earlier care of Cisneroz and Benner, police said. Benner was arrested without incident as well, police said.
“The officers went there and that’s when they saw the child. And that’s what started the investigation of the child. So, we arrested the two people upstairs, the baby sitters, but we also charged the mother because she failed to seek medical attention (for the child),” Mancha said.
Mancha said Cisneroz and Benner “beat the child a little bit. They actually beat him pretty bad. We took him to the hospital. He was black-and-blue.”
Olson and the child were treated for injuries at a hospital and released, police said.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was also involved in the investigation and have placed the children in protective custody, police said.
Cisneroz and Benner are due back in court Oct. 26.
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