Eagan man sentenced for brutalizing baby
Derek Schindler
An 32-year-old Eagan man was sentenced this week to two-and-a-half years in prison for inflicting injuries on his 11-month-old daughter that ranged from broken ribs to bleeding in the brain.
Derek Dell Schindler’s sentence in a Dakota County District Court June 27 includes an 11-month credit for time served. Schindler pleaded guilty in Feburary to malicious punishment of a child.
According to the criminal complaint, Schindler and the child’s mother took the girl to a pediatrician to examine a leg that had been swollen for two weeks.
An X-ray revealed that the girl’s leg was fractured and the pediatrician advised the couple to take their daughter to Children’s Hospital in Burnsville.
A series of scans at the hospital revealed the girl not only had a fractured leg, but also nine healing rib fractures and blood in her brain – injuries that doctors determined are consistent with abuse.
A nurse practitioner spoke with each parent separately, and learned that Schindler was the child’s sole care provider while the mother was at work.
Upon her release from the hospital, the girl was placed in foster care.
