The mother of a 14-month-old girl who sustained severe burns in the bathtub of their Vernon home has been arrested and is accused of providing a false statement to police.
The little girl sustained second- and third-degree burns to both hands and arms, as well as to her forehead, on March 14 and was taken to Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, according to details in the arrest warrant application. A doctor told police that the child would need extensive skin grafts and her treatment would take at least three years,
The mother, 25-year-old Victoria Brocuglio, of Vernon, initially told police that she had poured hot water into the bathtub to clean her sister’s hair dye out of it and turned to put the pot down on the sink. When her back was turned, the child put her hands in the tub and sustained the burns, according to the arrest warrant application.
Brocuglio told investigators she did not purposely harm her daughter and what happened was an accident, according to the arrest warrant application.
Medical staff told the Connecticut Department of Children and Families that Brocuglio’s explanation did not make sense, according to police.
According to a nurse practitioner, the little girl sustained serious burns to 9 percent of her body.
When investigators spoke with Brocuglio’s brother, he provided a different account of what happened.
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He said he and the little girl were in the kitchen, eating, and Brocuglio had boiled a pot of water on the stove, brought it into the bathroom to clean the tub and then returned to the kitchen.
As he was talking with his sister, the little girl ran off and he told her to “go after” the child, but Brocuglio didn’t, according to the arrest warrant application. Then they heard the little girl screaming and Brocuglio ran to her daughter and emerged from the bathroom with the little girl a few seconds later. Then they rushed down the back stairs to the brother’s car and drove the child to Rockville General Hospital.
As police investigated, Brocuglio eventually told them she poured the hot water in a toddler bathtub to clean dust off it and allowed the water to drain into the larger bathtub to clean it and then heard her daughter scream while she and her brother were in the kitchen, according to the arrest warrant application.
She went on to tell police that she was afraid to tell the truth because she felt guilty that she was not watching the toddler close enough, according to police.
Brocuglio was arrested Wednesday and charged with risk of injury to a minor and providing a false statement.
She was released on a $25,000 surety bond and is due in Rockville Superior Court on Monday.
