Greencastle man faces charges after 2-week-old injured

LATEST: Rogers was sentenced March 28, 2024, to a year in prison.

LEBANON, Ind. (WISH) — A man on Friday will face charges in a Boone County court in connection with the injury of a 2-week-old girl in November.

Gavan Rogers, 24, of Greencastle, was preliminarily charged with a count of battery and a count of neglect of the girl.

In court documents, a Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department detective says when the girl, who lives in Whitestown, was taken to Witham Hospital in Lebanon, staff members noticed bruising on the girl’s left shoulder, her left arm and wrist, her left knee, her back, and her inner right wrist.

Indiana Department of Child Services alerted the police department to the girl’s case. The detective found the girl had been taken to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis for medical care.

A Riley doctor told the detective that several areas of bruising included teeth marks. The doctor asked Rogers how the girl may have received the bruises and he said he will sometimes “nibble” on the girl.

Rogers told investigators he may have caused the bruising by “play-biting” or open-mouth kissing the girl too hard.

The detective wrote in the court documents, “I believe these injuries to be consistent with Gavan’s statement and how he demonstrated how he ‘nibbled too hard’. These injuries could only have been inflicted while using excessive force which would have caused severe pain to” the girl.