GUILTY PA - Brandon & Stephanie Green for child abuse, White Township, 2015

A western Pennsylvania woman was charged Tuesday with covering up for a man police say severely beat her 6-year-old son when he refused to take his medicine.

Stephanie and Brandon Green are charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and other offenses...

Police say the 26-year-olds waited at least five hours to take the boy to a hospital March 4. They say Stephanie Green lied to doctors and investigators about how he sustained his injuries...

Police say 26-year-old Brandon Green kicked the boy in the stomach and face. He required surgery on the liver, pancreas and intestines.

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Charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder is the boy’s stepfather, 26-year-old Brandon Green. His hearing was moving along Wednesday until the victim took the stand to testify.

He simply couldn’t speak, and the hearing ended.

“We don’t want this child to be victimized again,” said Dougherty. “It’s one thing he was hurt so significantly in the first place, but to put him through the trauma to testify, we’re going to do all we can to avoid that in the future.”

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In a rapid series of legal steps Wednesday, a White Township man was briefly cleared of charges that he beat and severely injured his stepson three months ago.

But Brandon Green, 25, was almost immediately rearrested and charged again with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and three related counts.

Prosecutors’ case against Green faltered Wednesday morning, when the young victim and his 5-year-old sister gave what proved to be unsteady testimony at a preliminary hearing before District Judge George Thachik.

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The girl described how Green injured her brother, but Thachik struck the girl’s testimony from the record after she said she didn’t see the assault, and that her brother had told her what happened.

Without an admissible account of the way the boy was injured, District Attorney Patrick Dougherty was unable to present planned medical testimony, and told Thachik he would withdraw the charges...

[DA Dougherty said] "In a child abuse situation, we’re putting way too much burden on a child. How do we protect a child by demanding that they testify? There’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a different way, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

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On Tuesday, the kids weren’t called to testify, but Dougherty built a largely circumstantial case with testimony suggesting no one but Green was responsible for the boy’s condition...

Stephanie Green, the children’s mother, testified that Brandon texted her at work to say the boy fell down some stairs. She said her son seemed OK when she returned home, but she took him to get checked at Indiana Regional Medical Center a few hours later after he got sick.

Stephanie Green testified that her son told her two different stories — at first, saying he was hurt because he fell down the stairs, but later, after being transferred to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, “he told me Brandon kicked him in the stomach.”

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At an October Criminal Call proceeding, Stephanie Green pleaded guilty to false reports to police, in exchange for non-prosecution on attempted homicide, aggravated assault, and other related offenses. She will be sentenced on December 21st.

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