Nashua Woman Accused Of Striking A Crying Child In The Face During A Domestic Disturbance

NASHUA, NH — A woman from Nashua is facing assault charges, including a felony, after being accused of hitting a 1-year-old child, according to police and court documents.

Rotcy Sachenka Rodriguez Fernandez, 20, of Front Street in Nashua, was arrested on May 27 on felony second-degree assault-child under 13 and domestic violence-simple assault charges.

Just after 11:45 p.m. on May 26, police were sent to an apartment on Front Street for a report of a domestic incident between a man and a woman. Police were told a child, 1, was injured and bleeding. The first arriving officer found out through interviews the man and woman were arguing about the child with Rodriguez Fernandez “not paying attention to him while he was crying,” an affidavit said. The argument, the report stated, “escalated into a physical altercation,” with Rodriguez Fernandez striking the man “numerous times.” While holding the boy, “Rotcy attempted to hit him, but had struck (the child) in the face,” the affidavit said.

The officer confirmed the child had a cut on his upper lip, the report stated.

Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Nashua Police Department and Nashua District Court and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains how to request the removal of a name from New Hampshire Patch police reports.

Rodriguez Fernandez was interviewed and gave a similar statement, according to the affidavit, but initially denied the argument was physical.

“But after further inquiry, Rotcy stated that the argument had become physical,” the officer wrote.

Rodriguez Fernandez accused the man of attempting to take her cellphone out of her hand while holding the child, and when he did this, the child “started to fall” and was caught by the man with his legs. She said this was when she noticed the child’s mouth was bleeding, the affidavit said. Rodriguez Fernandez thought the child was injured when his face hit a television in the couple’s bedroom, the report stated.

She was questioned further about the altercation, and the officer accused Rodriguez Fernandez of admitting to throwing nasal spray at the man, which hit him in the stomach. When asked if there was a point where she meant to hit the man but hit the child instead, “Rotcy responded, ‘There was something like that’.” Rodriguez Fernandez, however, did not elaborate further after making the statement, the affidavit said, but did say the child was not being held by the man at that time.

EMTs took the child to the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center for evaluation.

On May 27, a detective went to interview the man at the hospital.

The man said initially the incident was only verbal, and Rodriguez Fernandez went for a walk to try to calm down. He decided to do the same and prepared to take the child with him, even though it was 11 p.m. Rodriguez Fernandez, he said, got upset again when she returned home and saw them preparing to go for a walk, the affidavit said. The man accused Rodriguez Fernandez of not being “in the proper state of mind to care for (the child),” but she tried to block him from leaving. She then attacked him, the affidavit said, leaving scratches on his hands, and struck the child in the face.

Photographs of the injuries were taken, the report stated.

Rodriguez Fernandez was arrested, Mirandized, and interviewed by detectives, according to the report.

The detectives said she gave “a similar account of the beginning of the argument,” but denied hearing the child crying, the affidavit said. When the man picked up the child, Rodriguez Fernandez admitted she tried to stop him from leaving by blocking the doorway, but the man passed through, a detective wrote. Rodriguez Fernandez then repeated her comment that the man tried to grab her cellphone, and the child almost slipped while being held, the report stated, and the child hit his mouth on a television.

In the past, Rodriguez Fernandez said she “struggled to remember parts of physical altercations due to her diagnosed borderline personality disorder,” the affidavit said. But she added she did not believe she was forgetting anything that had happened, the detective wrote.

Rodriguez Fernandez was arraigned via video on May 28 and pleaded not guilty to the domestic violence-simple assault charge. She offered no plea on the felony charge. Rodriguez Fernandez was released on personal recognizance.

Rodriguez Fernandez is due back in Nashua District Court on June 30 for a probable cause hearing. She faces up to seven years in prison as well as fines.

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