Peabody man indicted for allegedly head-butting 7-week-old crying infant

SALEM – A Peabody father who police say shook and later head-butted his 7-week-old daughter because he was angry she was reportedly crying while he was drinking and playing video games was one of three local men indicted Wednesday afternoon by an Essex County grand jury.Richard Elias, 22, of 12 Magnolia Way, #1221, is charged with two counts of assault and battery upon a child causing substantial bodily injury.The charges arise out of two incidents at his apartment on Oct. 20 and Oct. 29.According to reports, on the night of Oct. 29, Elias, who is unemployed and received Social Security Disability income, took his 7-week-old daughter Isabella to North Shore Children?s Hospital, saying his daughter was suffering from seizures and that they had been going on for four hours straight.His wife was not at home at the time and was attending a Halloween party.The baby was immediately transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital where physicians there determined the child had suffered a traumatic brain injury and bleeding in the brain.During a previous hearing in Peabody District Court, Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall said the baby may lose her sight as a result of the retinal hemorrhages she suffered.Doctors also found four to five rib fractures on the child which were in the process of healing, indicating prior trauma.Elias told investigators that the baby was crying, he was drinking beer and trying to play a video game. He grew frustrated and shook and then head-butted Isabella.Through a police investigation, authorities learned that Elias had taken the baby to the hospital 10 days earlier on Oct. 20 because of a seizure, but doctors couldn?t determine what caused that convulsion and sent the child home.Doctors called the Department of Children and Family Services.His wife has obtained a one-year restraining order prohibiting Elias from any contact with her children.The indictments handed up now move the case from Peabody District Court, where Elias has pleaded innocent, to Salem Superior Court, where he will be re-arraigned within a few weeks.In the meantime, he remains held without bail at the Middleton Jail.Assistant District Attorney Kate B. MacDougall is assigned to prosecute the case.Also indicted were:Santo Martinez Lugo, also known as Benjamin Cardona, 32, of 121 Franklin St., #303, Lynn, charged with trafficking over 28 grams of cocaine and forging/misuse of a motor vehicle document.The charges stem from his arrest in Lynn on Oct. 17 when police pulled him over on the Lynnway for a motor vehicle infraction and reportedly found just over 50 grams of cocaine hidden in the vehicle.Assistant District Attorney Marsha Slingerland is prosecuting the case.Luis Baez, 46, of 81 Prince St., Roxbury, charged with trafficking over 200 grams of heroin.He was arrested in a vehicle on the Lynnway on June 4. The vehicle was stopped because of a revoked license. When the car was towed to a lot, police said they found 488 grams of heroin, nearly one-half kilo, hidden inside the car after a K-9 was brought in.Fingerprints allegedly belonging to Baez were found on the several bags of heroin seized, according to reports.A conviction on the heroin charge carries a minimum mandatory punishment of 15 years behind bars with no chance of early release.Assistant District Attorney A.J. Camelio is the prosecutor in the case.Indictments are not an indication of guilt, rather it is a legal process that allows a case to be transferred from District Court to Superior Court, allowing for a more severe punishment.