By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
Yashuan Manuel Roman
A San Benito man was arrested over the weekend for allegedly assaulting his mother and endangering his nine-month-old baby by giving him non-prescribed herbal drops.
It was at approximately 12:50 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13, when San Benito police responded to the 1600 block of South McCullough Street in reference to a domestic disturbance.
Police officers made contact with a man, who identified himself as Yashuan Roman, sitting on the front porch of the house.
According to police, Roman said he’d been in an altercation with his mother. The officers then made contact with Roman’s mother, who claimed that the confrontation stemmed from the care of her son’s nine-month-old baby boy.
Investigators with the San Benito Police Department reported that the child had been ill and asleep for 14 hours straight. Roman is accused of giving the child non-prescribed drops later identified as a liquid herbal extract called “Skullcap.” Investigators reported that said extract contains approximately 44 percent to 54 percent organic grain alcohol per fluid ounce.
Roman allegedly asked his mother to prepare a bottle for his baby; the mother agreed on the condition that he not give the baby the drops, police further reported. The mother told police that she advised her son against mixing the baby’s prescription medication with a substance not authorized by a doctor because it could kill the baby.
San Benito police stated that Roman allegedly replied, “So what if the baby dies, he’s my child.”
SBPD Detective Rogelio Banda, Jr. said that Roman told police that he was giving the baby the drops to treat an illness. “The baby was sick with the flu,” Banda said. “So he (Roman) was giving him medication to help the baby with a viral infection. He believed because it worked for him that it was going to help increase the baby’s immune system, but the medication contained alcohol which made it very dangerous for the baby.”
According to a police report, Roman is also accused of slapping his mother and pushing her against a refrigerator, this after she reportedly slapped her son.
Additionally, Roman allegedly grabbed his mother by the neck and pressed his thumbs into her throat before being separated by her 17-year-old son and being escorted outside, police reported.
Roman was placed under arrest and arraigned by Municipal Judge David Garza, who set his bond at $50,000 for endangering a child and $10,000 for assault family violence.
Read this story in the Jan. 16 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
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