By the time Elizabeth A. Moorman, 40, of Anoka, brought her injured son to the hospital Tuesday, his condition was grave enough that he had to be airlifted elsewhere.
Moorman offered three stories about what happened, authorities say, but they allege that the 3-year-old had been abused and that she failed to get help.
On Friday, her boyfriend, Anthony W. Urban, 24, of Andover, was charged with first-degree assault, and she was charged with child neglect in Anoka County District Court.
The boy, who had been airlifted from Coon Rapids to Hennepin County Medical Center, was put on life support and his prognosis Friday was not good, said Lt. Paul Lenzmeier of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office. On Thursday, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said the boy was not expected to survive.
According to the complaints, Urban told an investigator that he struck the boy on the side of the head after the child bit down on his fingers as Urban helped him brush his teeth. The boy's head then hit the bathroom floor, the boyfriend said, according to the complaints.
Later, after the boy threw up and his body stiffened, Urban phoned Moorman, and she told him not to call for help because she had warrants out for her arrest, he told authorities, according to the charges.
Moorman eventually took the boy to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids about 6 p.m. Tuesday.
There, she allegedly told a doctor that her son drove an electric car into a toy box and landed in the box head first. To a nurse, Moorman said that the boy may have been pushed down a flight of stairs by another child in their apartment building, the charges say.
