A father charged with inflicting a brain bleed on his infant daughter has won permission to visit the child at the homes of her grandparents in The Villages.
Benjamin Weingard, 35, remains free on $10,000 bond following his arrest June 8, 2019 on two counts of aggravated child abuse.
Earlier this month in Sumter County Court, Weingard won a modification of the conditions of his bond that will allow him to have supervised visits with the little girl at the homes of her grandparents, which are located in the Village of Santo Domingo and the Village of Calumet Grove. The visits can last up to two hours and may occur once a week, according to a court document.
The Department of Children and Families contacted the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office in June 2019 after the then-four-month-old female suffered a brain bleed and was taken to The Villages Regional Hospital. The baby suffered seizures and was transferred to Nemours Children’s Medical Center in Orlando.
Weingard and the baby’s mother were interviewed at the hospital in Orlando and summoned the following day to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office at Pinellas Plaza in The Villages.
Weingard, whose address is 1107 Saldivar Road in the Village of Santo Domingo, told law enforcement that the baby had been “fussy” and was repeatedly waking him up. He said he “did not understand” why the baby was crying as she had been “fed, changed and burped,” according to an arrest report.
He admitted he had “squeezed” the baby and realized it was “excessive.”
