Collapse survivor charged with abusing 2-year-old

Updated: August 10, 2007 - 12:08 AM

A Wisconsin man and the child's mother initially claimed the girl had fallen down the stairs earlier that day.

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A bridge collapse survivor was charged Thursday with abusing his girlfriend's toddler so severely that she was left with massive brain injuries.

Michael E. Stoner, Jr., 26, of Spooner, Wis., is accused of abusing 2-year-old Emmaline Manning, the daughter of Crystal Manning, also of Spooner. He is charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and physical abuse of a child, both felonies, and with a misdemeanor, obstructing an officer.

The couple made news after they survived the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. They told TV reporters that they were on their way to see the toddler at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis when their Jeep plunged into the Mississippi. The couple claimed that the child had fallen down the stairs that day.

The charges say the child's brain injury, which required surgeons to remove the top of her skull as her brain swelled, was not accidental. She also had other injuries in various stages of healing and a fresh burn-type injury.

Charges allege that Stoner changed his story about how the child was abused several times. He has an extensive criminal history.

He was home alone with Emmaline, the charges say, when the injury occurred. The papers also allege that he asked the child's mother to lie to authorities but that she refused. Stoner allegedly avoided bringing the child to one of two hospitals he passed that day, according to documents filed in Washburn County District Court. Stoner is in the Washburn County jail.

Emmaline was comatose by the time Stoner and her mother brought the child to Indianhead Medical Center in Shell Lake, Wis. She was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, where she remains in critical condition.

JOY POWELL