Alleged Revere child-beater facing serious charges

BOSTON – Police initially thought Joseph Testa had beaten a 5-year-old boy to death last April 21, but the child recovered from his injuries sufficiently, according to a court document, to be able to tell his mother Testa had “thrown him around like a bouncy ball.”Testa, 29, 5 Noble St., pleaded innocent before Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Connie Wong Tuesday, to charges of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury, assault and battery on a child, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, child endangerment and a restraining order violation.Testa was initially arraigned in Chelsea District Court on April 25, where police and prosecutors said Testa beat the boy on April 21 in his mother?s 595 Revere Beach Parkway apartment.Prosecutors said Testa insisted on staying home with the boy on the following day when the child?s mother, Jennifer Mason, went to work. Shortly after she left, Testa, according to police, ran out of the apartment building carrying the boy and crossed the Parkway, where drivers and police came to the child?s assistance.?The allegations are extraordinarily serious; the evidence is overwhelming. The defendant faces a significant state prison sentence,” Assistant District Attorney David Deakin told Wong Tuesday.Wong set $25,000 bail for Testa, ordered him to continue to remain under the house arrest order set in District Court, ordered him to continue wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet and ordered him to not contact the boy or Mason.Testa is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 16.Deakin had asked the judge to set bail at $250,000.Deakin filed a court statement that details how the boy, in June interviews with a child interview specialist, told his mother that Testa “beat ? him up.” The statement quotes the boy as telling the interviewer Testa picked him up and threw him down so that the boy?s body “hit the wall.”According to the statement, the boy sustained a forehead abrasion and bruises on his back, flank and genitals.Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Alice Newton told investigators, according to the statement, that the boy suffered a brain injury 30 to 60 minutes before he was hospitalized.The boy “was admitted immediately for emergency surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain caused by intracranial bleeding,” according to the court documents.Newton said the boys? injuries “were not consistent with self-inflicted and/or accidental injuries.”Deakin in court Tuesday said the boy underwent surgery in recent weeks to remove a piece of his skull and relieve swelling on his brain. According to the statement, the boy may never be able to walk normally again.?For what he went through he is doing excellent, but he can barely move the right side of his body,” Mason said Tuesday.Shannon McAuliffe, Testa?s attorney, said initial police reports filed on the beating investigation indicated the boy?s body showed signs of recent and older bruises.She told the court the boy had been with his grandparents for four days prior to April 22 when, McAuliffe stated in court, the boy told his mother he was not feeling well.Deakin said Testa gave police and drivers who stopped to help him on the morning of April 22 different explanations about why he ran out of Mason?s apartment building and across the Parkway with the boy in his arms. McAuliffe said Testa realized the boy was ill and ran outside to get him help.?When he saw the child was sick he took the child out for air. We have a man who has no history of abusing this child or any child. I think there are other suspects in this case,” McAuliffe said following Testa?s arraignment.Deakin said the restraining order violation against Testa stemmed from 13 telephone calls he made to Mason in the early morning hours of May 13.