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A Stewartville man, who made a first appearance in Olmsted County Court last week on Feb. 24 to face three felony counts of abuse and assault including malicious punishment of a child, was currently on probation for a pair of 2023 convictions for child abuse in Mower County.

Forty-two-year-old Jeffrey Michael Phillips was again in front of Judge Natalie Martinez on Friday, the same judge who sentenced him in the Mower when Phillips was living in LeRoy, for a hearing regarding those cases.

He was then released ahead of court appearances later this month in both Mower County District Court and Olmsted County District, which includes a probation violation hearing on Thursday in Mower County.

He’s scheduled for a March 26th initial appearance hearing for the Olmsted County case where it has been alleged that Phillips severely injured a seven-week-year-old infant, which included a broken femur and tibia bone in the child’s left leg.

According to the court complaint, a Rochester Police Department sergeant responded to a report of the child’s injuries on Feb. 6. The sergeant talked with the mother and Phillips, both of whom said the mother tripped over the dog and fell down some stairs while holding the child.

However, a few days later on Feb. 19, the mother contacted law enforcement saying she wished to give an updated statement, telling police that the original story was a lie and that Phillips allegedly convinced her of doing it before taking the child to the hospital.

The mother went on to say that the injury to the infant allegedly happened while Phillips was attempting to clothe the child.

The mother then said that Phillips came into the bedroom and gave the child over to her and that she noticed the child was crying more than usual. She noted that the victim’s leg was “loose” when changing him later that day before taking the child to the hospital.

When confronted by the mother, Phillips supposedly claimed it was an accident, but later that same day once again tried claiming it happened when the mother tripped over the dog.

However, Phillips changed his story and allegedly acknowledged that it was possible he hurt the infant’s leg when trying to clothe the child.

According to the complaint, Phillips allegedly admitted that he used more force than he should have, noting he was angry about the fuss the infant was making while dressing him.

He also admitted that he suggested making up the initial story.

In August of 2023, Phillips was convicted of felony third degree assault-substantial bodily harm and sentenced to five years supervised probation as well as being sentenced to three years supervised probation for gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child.

A violation of the probation risked triggering a 15-month prison sentence from the conviction.

At the same time, Phillips was sentenced to three years supervised probation for gross misdemeanor domestic assault-subsequent violation in the other Mower case, which runs concurrent to the previous case.

In this case a violation could result in triggering 281 days in jail. Phillips is under the umbrella of both probation conditions as of this most recent case in Olmsted.

In the two Mower cases, Phillips was found to have been abusing two juveniles while living in LeRoy, something that was witnessed by several people in the community including those at LeRoy Public Schools.

According to court records, school staff reported that it appeared one of the victims had come to school with bruising and that he was “walking like an old man in pain.”. A Mower County Sheriff’s Office deputy who responded to the call witnessed severe bruising, scratch marks and swelling on the boy’s body.

Even though they were dismissed in this case, Phillips had also been charged with two felony counts of third-degree assault-past pattern of child abuse.

In the second case, a witness reported that Phillips had hit the second boy so hard that he knocked out two teeth as well as striking the child’s head on the trunk.

Still, prior to all of this, Phillips was sentenced in May of 2017 to one year supervised probation for misdemeanor domestic assault.

Aside from the malicious punishment of a child charge in Olmsted, Phillips also faces felony domestic assault and felony third degree assault-substantial bodily harm. Phillips faces the possibility of five years in prison and/ a $10,000 fine with each charge.