Rivera had previously been charged with murder in the death of his 5-week-old daughter Jania Rivera.
SPRINGFIELD – A city couple on Tuesday denied charges in Hampden Superior Court of assault and battery on a child causing serious injury. The child in the case is their 7-month-old daughter.
Samuel Rivera, 23, and Tiffany Partridge, 24, were released on their own recognizance with Judge Peter A. Velis imposing the condition requested by the prosecutor, that they have no contact at all with children under 16 years old.
Assistant District Attorney Donna S. Donato told Velis the couple are the parents of three children.
One is in the legal and physical custody of a relative, “the second died under suspicious circumstances” and the third, Jayla, is the victim in this case, she said.
“The commonwealth has a very real concern of these defendants being around children,” Donato said. The couple lives at 122 Chestnut St.
Rivera had previously been charged with murder in the death of his 5-week-old daughter Jania Rivera in October 2007 but the state ultimately dropped the case.
Donato said at the time of the dismissal one reason was lack of cooperation by family members.
Police reports in the file of the 2007 case said Rivera had called 911, and when police and ambulance personnel arrived, Jania Rivera had bright red froth coming from her nose and blood in her upper airway. She later died.