Investigators: Mother accused of abusing 3-month-old son tried to blame a friend for his injuries

RACINE COUNTY -- 32-year-old Nicole Grimm of Union Grove faces one count of physical abuse of a child after her almost three-month-old son ended up in the hospital with a skull fracture.

According to a criminal complaint, on January 20th, Racine County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to a hospital in Kenosha -- where they met with a nurse, who informed them that a child had been brought to the hospital by his mother, Nicole Grimm and her boyfriend "because he had a seizure." The nurse advised that a radiologist heard Grimm say that she had abused her child.

Deputies met with the child, who was found to have a scrape under his right eye, a rash on his knee and what appeared to be diaper rash on his bottom and inner thighs.

The radiologist advised that she had taken the child to get a CT scan and X-rays, and that's when Grimm stated that she "abused her baby tonight in the tub." The radiologist said Grimm then looked at her boyfriend and said "she was just kidding about hitting her child."

The complaint says after offering "numerous stories" as to what caused the child's seizure, Grimm said she "thinks her friend must have done something to (the boy) while she was watching him the day before." Grimm said the diaper rash started when she picked the boy up. Grimm said a friend watched the boy on January 18th while she appeared in court on Waukesha County. Grimm said she noticed some diaper rash that evening, and said the child appeared "fussy," but she didn't notice anything else unusual.

On January 19th, Grimm said she was given the child a bath when she noticed "bruise marks" on his head and a bump. She said she decided to seek medical treatment and got the child's diaper bag and bottle ready, and that's when his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he began shaking.

According to the complaint, a doctor who treated the child said she did not see any signs of bruising or swelling or a bump on the child's head.

The child ended up being transferred to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee as a precaution due to possible child abuse and the seizure. At Children's, it was determined the child suffered a skull fracture, according to the complaint.

The complaint says when speaking with Child Protective Services workers, Grimm said of her four children, she only has custody of the one child involved in this case. Grimm said her child "might have been hurt when (her friend's) toddler threw a toy at him, but consistently insisted that her child was hurt while in (her friend's) care." Grimm also showed investigators a text message reportedly from her friend, in which she apologized for hurting the child.

It was later determined that Grimm had sent the message to herself after borrowing a phone from her friend. The complaint says Grimm admitted she did that so "police would think (her friend) was guilty."

According to the complaint, Grimm again offered investigators a number of stories in an attempt to explain the child's skull fracture -- but it was determined by investigators that none of those incidents could have caused a skull fracture. However, the complaint says the skull fracture could have been caused by hitting the child's head against a bathtub.

Grimm made her initial appearance in court in this case on February 13th -- after a warrant was issued for her arrest. A preliminary hearing was set for February 23rd.

Cash bond was set at $2,500.