Joshua Marbury And Alicia Quinney Seek Justice For Jacob Marbury — Parents Outraged After Loophole In Oregon Law Prevents Abusive Babysitter From Being Prosecuted

Joshua Marbury and Alicia Quinney are fuming mad. The Sherwood, Oregon parents of 1-year old Jacob Marbury want justice for the beating their toddler son received at the hands of an abusive babysitter. The outraged parents were horrified to learn that despite plenty of evidence, the man who hit their son will not be prosecuted because of a shocking loophole in Oregon law.

Out of frustration, Joshua Marbury took to Facebook to tell the story of his son Jacob, who suffered at the hands of his babysitter. Joshua shared that his son Jacob was hit on the right side of his face to the point where he suffered bruising all along the right side of his face from the bottom of his cheek to the top of his head. Baby Jacob also had a black eye and multiple other bruises on his body that appeared the following day.

“After TWO months of waiting we only find out that charges are dropped BECAUSE my one year old cannot tell you verbally he was abused and my son did not show he was in pain OR that this person ‘intentionally’ did this.”

Jacob’s mother, Alicia Quinney, said that her son was abused by a babysitter back in March. Quinney said her son was upset and crying while the babysitter slept on the couch when she and Joshua Marbury returned home from a date night so she comforted him before putting him to bed for the night. The next morning, she says that she noticed the horrific bruises all over the right side of Jacob’s face and on his back and shoulders so she immediately took him to the hospital to be examined because she suspected that the babysitter had abused her son. At that point, police were notified and an investigation was begun according to The Oregonian.

Oregon parents outraged at court ruling over babysitter ‘injuring their son’: Joshua Marbury and Alicia Quinn… https://t.co/K6olweKVHs

— Arsenal Till I Die (@ahmed4rl) May 22, 2016

It took nearly two months for Joshua Marbury and Alicia Quinney to receive notification that their son’s abuser would not be arrested or charged for his crimes. Despite the unnamed abuser finally admitting that he struck Jacob Marbury, causing injuries that doctors admitted could have killed the child, a loophole in Oregon law prevents law enforcement from making the man pay for his crimes.

As it was explained to Alicia Quinney, a 2012 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling is making it difficult to get justice for Jacob Marbury. According to prosecutors, the shocking law makes it hard to prosecute crimes against victims who can’t speak. They even provided her with a news article about the ruling that made a claim that it was easier to prosecute animal abuse than it was to prosecute abuse against a child who was too young to talk about their injuries.

According to Oregon law, in order to charge and convict a child abuser for their crimes, it must be proven that the victim has suffered a “physical injury” that “inflicted substantial pain.” So in cases where the child is too young to speak, Marbury and Quinney were told that it was impossible to prove to the extent that satisfies the law in Oregon that their toddler son was abused at the hands of the babysitter. Even with pictures of the child’s injuries, testimony from doctors who treated the child, and a confession from the abuser, this family was told that no charges would be filed and nothing would be done to protect their child and possibly others from this man.

Joshua Marbury tells of nightmare Babysitter who attacked baby son https://t.co/jHO6YKkdAH pic.twitter.com/fGJq4ztat9

— Police Hour (@PoliceHour) May 22, 2016

The abuse suffered by Jacob Marbury at the hands of his babysitter is shocking. What is even more shocking is that even with a mountain of evidence and a confession, nothing is being done to hold Jacob’s abuser accountable for what he did.

Joshua Marbury’s Facebook post ended up going viral and has now been shared more than 300,000 times. The photos shared of 1-year old Jacob Marbury have even sparked increased interest in the case, including that of Washington County Deputy District Attorney Dustin Staten.

Staten told The Oregonian that he had seen photos of Jacob Marbury’s injuries but not the same ones that were shared on Facebook. After viewing these pictures, Staten said, “Seeing those photos has caused me to want to take a different path.” So maybe Joshua Marbury’s upsetting Facebook post that went viral really did help because it got the attention of the prosecutor and renewed his interest in pushing for charges against Jacob’s abuser.

[Image via Shutterstock]