Prosecutors claim history of ‘excessive punishments’ against kids

DIXON – As a 6-year-old boy struggles to recover from a severe head trauma suffered nearly 6 months ago, police have arrested his stepmother, who they say caused the injuries.

Lee County prosecutors Thursday filed a single charge of aggravated battery to a child against Tiffany D. Fassler, 35, of Dixon.

The charge, a Class X felony, carries a sentence of 6 to 30 years in prison.

Newly filed court documents reveal that investigators learned the abuse didn’t stop with the December incident, nor was the boy the only child in the home subjected to “excessive punishments.”

The boy’s father, Dixon firefighter Andrew C. Fassler, 39, also was charged Thursday with felony aggravated domestic battery for throwing another son down the stairs and breaking his arm in October 2009, according to prosecutors.

Tiffany Fassler turned herself in to police Wednesday night. Lee County Judge Jacquelyn Ackert lowered her bond Thursday from $500,000 to $100,000.

She posted $10,000 to get out of the Lee County Jail. She will appear in court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.

Andrew Fassler posted $10,000 Wednesday night. He will appear in court July 20.

Lee County State’s Attorney Henry Dixon said Thursday that the 6-year-old boy suffered “irreparable brain damage” and has a “moderate-low level of life existence.”

The boy can communicate with people, but Dixon said he doesn’t know to what extent.

The boy is in a recovery facility in Chicago, Dixon said.

Tiffany Fassler’s attorney, Paul Whitcombe, said she denies the charges against her and that “she will fight this to the very end.”

Whitcombe said his client’s “heart goes out to this little boy.”

The Fasslers are in the process of divorcing, according to court records. The children have been removed from the home, according to prosecutors.

According to probable cause affidavits, the documents outlining why each defendant is being charged with a crime:

About 11:45 a.m. Dec. 30, Dixon EMS went to the Fassler home in the 1400 block of Phyllis Drive and found the boy unresponsive.

He was taken to KSB Hospital and later transferred to Rockford Memorial Hospital, where he underwent emergency brain surgery for “serious head trauma.”

A caseworker from the Department of Children and Family Services contacted Illinois State Police after hospital staff reported that the boy had more than 50 bruises in various stages of healing on his feet, legs, buttocks, back, arms, chest, neck, and head.

Those injuries were not consistent with information provided by Tiffany Fassler, who was watching the boy that night, the caseworker told investigators.

The boy’s 10-year-old brother told the caseworker that he saw Tiffany Fassler kick the boy in the chest, causing him to hit his head on the knob of a bathroom vanity.

Andrew Fassler told investigators that he was on duty when his wife called to tell him that the boy was “not acting normal.” After calling for an ambulance, Andrew Fassler said he went home and found the boy breathing but unresponsive.

He further told investigators that the boy’s brother had called him and told him that he saw his wife kick the boy.

Investigators retrieved multiple items from the Fasslers’ house that appeared to have a blood-like substance.

After numerous interviews with witnesses, investigators learned that there was a history of child abuse in the home.

Tiffany Fassler admitted to investigators that she gave the boy “cold showers” as a punishment for urinating in his bed.

Another sibling told investigators that she made the boy eat his meals alone, and they often consisted of only a salami sandwich. If the boy wet his bed, he would be forced to do jumping jacks.

The sibling also said Tiffany Fassler often made the boy and his 10-year-old brother stand in the hallway “for hours at a time” and had kicked the 10-year-old in the past.

During a family trip to a water park in the days before the Dec. 30 incident, the boy was not allowed to swim, although the other children could.

The boy’s kindergarten teacher told police she had seen injuries on him, which included a black eye during the last school year.

A neighbor said they saw the 10-year-old “exposed to extreme heat” on one occasion and was “apparently being punished” by having to pull a single weed, then run, and repeat the process for hours.

Tiffany Fassler told investigators that her husband often used “excessive punishment” to the boy and the 10-year-old, and said that she often had to step in and tell him to “cool down.”

One of the punishments he used, Tiffany Fassler told investigators, was forcing the kids to run the stairs for a period of time.

On Oct. 1, 2009, the 10-year-old apparently was being punished and was not “running the stairs fast enough.”

Andrew Fassler then grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled the 10-year-old toward the stairway, causing him to fall down the stairs and break his arm, Tiffany Fassler told investigators.

The 10-year-old complained of pain for a couple days; his father didn’t take him to the hospital until 2 days later, Tiffany Fassler told investigators.

Police interviewed Andrew Fassler about the 2009 incident during their investigation into the 6-year-old’s injuries.

He told them he was taking the 10-year-old boy up the stairs. The boy was being “a little jerk” and pulled away, causing him to fall and break his arm when he held it out to brace the fall.

The boy told investigators that his father threw him down the stairs head first “like Superman.”

Neither Andrew nor Tiffany Fassler believed that he broke his arm when he told them it hurt, he told an investigators.

Further, the boy said, he was made to do jumping jacks to prove he was in pain.

The boy told police that his father told hospital staff that he broke his arm when he was wrestling with his brother, according to the probable cause affidavits.

Andrew Fassler, a city firefighter since 2001, also faces misdemeanor charges of damage to property and battery in Lee County stemming from an apparent fight he got into with another man May 9.

He is on leave from the fire department pending the outcome of the case.

His attorney, Lou Pignatelli of Rock Falls, declined to comment Thursday.

Documents

Read the probable cause affidavits filed Thursday in Lee County court for Andrew and Tiffany Fassler.

Read the criminal complaint against Tiffany Fassler.

In a separate, unrelated incident, read the criminal complaint against Andrew Fassler.