BOSTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A teenager who threw her newborn baby from a second-floor Boston apartment had been raped and threatened if she told anyone, her attorney said in court.
Lawyer Francisco Napolitano, appearing in Suffolk Superior Court, said Eva Flores, 18, had gotten pregnant after being raped in El Salvador and was told she would be harmed if she told anyone, including her family.
Flores, who had hidden her pregnancy after immigrating to the United States, is charged with assault and battery and wanton and reckless endangerment of a child.
Neighbors found the baby boy alive and crying with parts of his umbilical cord still attached in an alley behind Flores' apartment home on Sept. 20, The Boston Globe reported.
Napolitano did not dispute Eva Flores threw her baby from the window but said she was suffering from mental and physical trauma.
"Her mental state is questionable right now," he said. "This whole thing seems to have started with a brutal rape -- that seems to have gone astray here.''
Prosecutors have yet to determine if Flores' claim of rape is true, the Boston Herald reported.
"Our duty is to speak for this victim in this case," Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, said. "There can be no justification for inflicting such serious injuries on so innocent a child."
The baby is in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families and is in medical foster care after suffering brain injuries that could be permanent, the Globe reported.
