BRADFORD, Vt. — A 29-year-old woman living in a Bradford hotel faces child abuse charges after her 11-month-old infant was admitted to the hospital in critical condition as a result of what doctors determined to be a “serious physical injury” not caused by an accident.

Taylor Grenier, who is identified as living at the Bradford Motel on Lower Plain Road in Bradford with her infant boy at the time of the incident, pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of aggravated domestic assault in the first degree and a misdemeanor count of cruelty to a child, at her arraignment in Orange County Superior Court last Wednesday, Aug. 14, according to court records.

She was subsequently released with conditions on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond, court records show.

Conditions require Grenier to continue residing under a 24-hour curfew at the Bradford Motel and forbid her to contact friends and associates who were interviewed as part of the investigation by police.

Police said they were notified on Aug. 8 that emergency responders had transported an infant child suffering from “head trauma” early that morning to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon where the boy was in critical condition.

When police went to the Bradford Motel to investigate what happened, Grenier told police she was sleeping with her son in her bed when she “woke up to a loud smack” to find the infant laying on his back on the floor, according to an affidavit provided by a Vermont State trooper who conducted the investigation.

Grenier told police that when she picked up the infant, “he felt limp” and she “lightly slapped his face but he did not open her eyes.” At that point she “put him in his pack” and “immediately called 911,” according to Grenier.

Other than her residence at the motel, Grenier’s ties to Bradford and the Upper Valley are unclear.

Police said that Grenier informed them that 12 months earlier, in August, 2023, two days before her baby was born, she had been with her boyfriend, who was also the baby’s father, when he died of an aneurysm, according to the affidavit.

Vermont State Police confirmed with Norfolk, Va., police, the death of the infant’s father, although Norfolk police said they had responded to a report of an unresponsive man who was in a vehicle with Grenier and “both appeared to be overdosing” and “Grenier was transported for treatment of her unborn child.”

The man’s death was subsequently ruled an accidental overdose from fentanyl and cocaine toxicity, according to a copy of the death certificate troopers said they obtained.

Several of Grenier’s friends whom police interviewed reported they had observed bruises on the infant.

Although Grenier appeared at times to be “overwhelmed” with caring for the infant and neglectful of his safety, they nonetheless said they had never observed her to abuse or physically harm the infant.

Medical staff at DHMC told Vermont State Police investigators that the infant had suffered “numerous injuries, including a large subdural hematoma, spinal hematoma, diffused hemorrhages in both eyes and ligamentous injuries to the spine,” which doctors said was “indicative of serious physical injury by other than accidental means.”

A pediatrician who specializes in child abuse at DHMC concluded the infant had “most likely experienced rotational acceleration and deceleration forces as in shaking coupled with an impact due to the scalp swelling on the left side of his head,” according to the police affidavit.

When police went back to meet with Grenier and informed her that doctors determined her infant’s injuries could not have been sustained by “falling out of bed,” she asked if “bouncing him could have done something.”

Police then asked “how hard” Grenier bounced the infant and she responded she had been “emotional and freaking out.”

Grenier told police she was “just trying to get (her infant son) to wake up.”

The police investigators kept pressing Grenier to give “the truth about what happened” and Grenier then acknowledged “maybe she was being a little more aggressive than she should have been” but said “she has never shaken her kid … never shaken or thrown him down,” according to the affidavit.

“Grenier maintained she did not hurt her son,” the police investigator wrote. But Grenier also demonstrated how she was “bouncing him while holding his head on her arm. She also demonstrated holding him under his armpits shaking back and forth.”

After the investigators said they conferred privately they returned to continue their interview with Grenier, repeating that her infant’s injuries could not have occurred from falling out of bed and asking a second time for her to tell “the truth” about what happened.

Grenier said “now that she was thinking maybe she did shake him a little hard” but that she “didn’t think she was being aggressive.”

“She advised she was overwhelmed and bounced him and jolted him but she just wanted him to wake up,” police investigators wrote in the affidavit.

At that point, police informed Grenier she was being charged with domestic assault against her infant son, and escorted her to the processing room.

John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.