Should Melissa Calusinski be Released from Prison?

Why is Melissa Calusinki still in prison?

That is the question her father and the Lake County Coroner are now asking after the coroner ruled Wednesday that the 16-month-old boy she was convicted of killing actually died from a pre-existing condition, ABC 7 Chicago is reporting.

The coroner’s office on Wednesday ruled the cause of death for Benjamin Kingan is now undetermined. An autopsy completed in January 2009 showed Kingan of Deerfield suffered a skull fracture that lead to his death.

Those autopsy results lead to the conviction of Calusinski, a daycare worker at the now-closed Minee Subee Daycare Center in Lincolnshire. Calusinski, formerly of Carpentersville, is currently serving a 31-year prison sentence for accusations she hurled the young child to the ground, causing a severe brain injury that ultimately caused his death.

• Lake Co. Coroner Changes Cause of Death Ruling For Boy Who Died at Daycare in 2009

On June 10, defense attorneys learned of x-rays on file at the coroner’s office that they said were never shared or provided to them prior to Calusinki’s trial, according to a coroner’s office press release.

After analyzing this new evidence, Lake Co. Coroner Paul Rudd said it is impossible to conclude that the “final head injury was intentionally inflicted.”

“Melissa needs to be released and the state’s attorney needs to do his duty,” Rudd told ABC 7 Chicago on Wednesday.

One of the new skull x-rays showed Kingan had an abnormally shaped head. His head was round, like “an old-fashioned light bulb,” which was not normal for a child his age. His head circumference was also in the 95th percentile at the time of his death, according to the coroner’s office.

“This indicates significant abnormality within the head,” Rudd said in the Wednesday press release. “What is most striking in this skull x-ray is a complete lack of evidence for a skull fracture.”

Rudd also said the original findings that Kingan suffered a “fatal acute bleed” were false.

Instead, it appears that a blow to the child’s head on Oct. 27, 2008, followed by repetitive concussions lead to his demise. Subsequent hand-banging incidents, included a final head-banging incident about 20 minutes before he was found unresponsive at the daycare, was likely the “mechanism of death.”

Rudd, a medical doctor, told 48 Hours during an interview earlier this year that Calusinski should not have been convicted based on the forensic evidence. Rudd took office in 2012 and began reviewing the records at Calusinski’s father’s request. Rudd says he found significant and obvious evidence of a prior brain injury. And a former Cook County coroner enlisted for a second opinion agreed with him.

• Read More: 2009 Minee Subee Daycare Killing Profiled on ‘48 Hours’

In the Wednesday press release, Rudd wrote about the 2012 findings:

The original findings were that of an alleged “skull fracture” on the right side of the head. This made no sense scientifically since there was no bleeding identified in the subgaleum (under the skin) or in the periosteum (skull bone) corresponding to the area of the alleged defect (skull fracture).

In fact, the alleged skull fracture could have been an accessory suture (an area of the skull that expands as the brain grows in a child) since there is a similar appearing defect present in the region of the left skull.

Unfortunately, no tissue from this alleged skull defect was submitted for confirmation by microscopic analysis which would have confirmed the nature of the defect, i.e., a skull fracture due to injury or a normal anatomic variant such as an accessory suture (growth plate).

Calusinki is next expected in court in September.

State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim said his office is reviewing the new materials to determine if it changes the previous outcome in the case.