When San Francisco prosecutors dismissed charges against Kristian Aspelin in early December, it became just the latest case to raise questions about how shaken baby syndrome is diagnosed. Aspelin, who was accused of causing the death of his infant son, had one thing in his favor: He had enough money to pay for medical experts who cast doubt on the prosecution's theory.
Aspelin's nightmare began on a November afternoon two years ago. He had just brought his two sons home from day care. His 2-year-old son opened the refrigerator and dropped strawberries and pizza on the floor. Aspelin says he went to clean it up while holding his 3-month-old son, Johan.
"So I ran into the kitchen to address what was going on, and I brought Johan along with me in my right hand and eventually after cleaning up, slipped and fell," says Aspelin, who spoke publicly for the first time in an interview with NPR. "And I will never forgive myself for bringing Johan into the kitchen, but it was an accident."
Johan had fallen onto the tile floor.
Aspelin called 911 and an ambulance took the infant to the hospital. Five days after the fall, Johan died.
The San Francisco medical examiner did an autopsy and found injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Aspelin was charged with felony assault of his son.
Earlier this month, prosecutors quietly dropped the charges after Aspelin's attorney presented reports from six medical experts and a biomechanical engineer. Those defense experts explained how the child's death was consistent with the fall Aspelin described and argued there was a lack of evidence to suggest the child was deliberately injured.
Aspelin's defense even hired a video company that made a model of the family's kitchen — the family had since moved — and filmed Aspelin, holding a doll, slipping on the floor.
"Before we did the reenactment," Aspelin says, "I didn't know if I would be able to, how I would react to go into that environment and try to relive those moments that have, you know, basically haunted me for, for a long time."
One issue was whether a child could die from a fall of just about three feet. The video showed how the child's head could have hit the hard tile.
Among the experts Aspelin hired were those who have testified on both sides of child abuse cases. Some explained how scientific knowledge about child deaths is changing, and how they have come to understand there are many alternative possibilities to what's often thought to be deliberate and violent shaking.
Patrick Barnes, a pediatric neuroradiologist and one of the experts hired by Aspelin's defense, explained how doctors now recognize "a variety of accidental and natural causes" that are sometimes overlooked in cases that are first diagnosed as shaken baby syndrome.
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