Journal-News.com

FAIRFIELD — Police reopened a five-year-old case of child abuse after a possible suspect was charged in a similar case in Hamilton County.

In September 2002, Austin Keel, then weeks old, was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome after someone living in his Fairfield home allegedly shook the baby so severely it caused permanent damage, including blindness, said Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper.

According to the police report, Austin was transported "unresponsive" with a skull fracture and subdural hemorrhage to Mercy Hospital Fairfield. The child was transferred by medical helicopter to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Piper said the case will be discussed at the county's Child Abuse Task Force, a group that looks at child abuse cases.

In August, a 2-year-old Reading girl was taken to the hospital for "significant bruising" to her head and torso. The girl had bleeding within the brain region and "other traumatic injuries to virtually all regions of the child's body," according to reports.

Tony Servizi, who lived in Austin's residence in 2002, was charged with felonious assault, endangering children and domestic violence in the Reading case. His attorney, Wilkes Ellsworth, declined to comment.

"This case demands that we re-examine it," Piper said of the Fairfield abuse case. "The injuries are just too horrific that the trauma and the permanent damages and destruction visited upon this child by somebody; we've got to do everything we can to find out who the perpetrator is and hold them accountable."

Servizi is not named a suspect in Austin's case, but Piper said, "it certainly gives me the smell of smoke. I got to find the fire and who got it started."

Austin's mother, Laura Keel, could not be reached for comment.