Peabody infant shaking suspect held without bail

SALEM – Jennifer Ward, the 37-year-old Peabody woman accused of shaking her 9-month-old daughter to death was ordered held without bail at her arraignment Friday in Salem Superior Court.Ward, who lived at 30 Keyes Drive, appeared nervous as she faced Judge Howard J. Whitehead, wearing a tweed sweater trimmed in white, black pants and leopard colored flat shoes, spoke softly as pleaded not guilty to murder in the first degree in connection with the death of her infant daughter, Jocelyn Mae Ward-Anderson.The infant died from abusive head trauma, commonly known as shaken baby syndrome, on Nov. 21 at Children?s Hospital in Boston, three days after Ward took the child to Lahey Clinic in Peabody.Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall asked Whitehead to hold Ward without bail until next Wednesday, Jan. 2, which the judge complied with.Defense lawyer Thomas Barrett told Whitehead he was reserving his right to a bail argument until that time.In the meantime, Ward is held Framingham Prison for Women on a no-bail situation.Because there was no bail argument, the commonwealth did not present any facts concerning their case.Ward was indicted by an Essex County grand jury on Dec. 21 in connection with her daughter?s death. She was arrested that night at her parents? home in Kennebunk, Maine.Ward was arraigned earlier this week in Maine on a fugitive-from-justice charge and waived extradition back to Massachusetts to face the charge.Both Ward and her infant daughter tested positive for unspecified drugs when the girl was born Feb. 22. The hospital called the Department of Social Services, but the agency allowed Ward to take her daughter home after she agreed to drug therapy, according to DSS spokesman Richard Nangle.In March, a report of negligence caused DSS to place the baby in a foster home.Ward then completed drug treatment and a parenting program in July and was granted custody of her daughter by Lynn Juvenile Court with the approval of DSS.?Everyone involved in the case thought it was a success story,” Nangle wrote in an E-mail statement.A conviction on the first-degree murder charge carries a life sentence in state prison, with no chance of parole.The baby?s father Robert Ward, 45, of Lynn, has not been charged with any crime.