Brooklyn Park man charged with murder in toddler son's death

A 23-year-old man accused of fatally beating his 23-month-old son this week was charged with murder Friday.

Reggie Delaine Harper, 23, of Brooklyn Park, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in the death Tuesday of Kazerion Harper, who police say was repeatedly punched by Harper for crying in his crib.

"This is a sickening case of child abuse where our office and county child protection did all it could within the law to protect Kazerion and his older brother," County Attorney Mike Freeman said.

Harper, who remains in custody, will have his first court appearance Monday. A judge also decided Friday to keep Kazerion's nearly-3-year-old brother, who witnessed the deadly abuse, in protective custody.

On Tuesday, Kazerion's mother, Chelsie Powe, 23, told police that Harper laid the boy in his crib and that when he started to cry, Harper got up, grabbed Kazerion by the neck and shoulder, placed him on the floor and hit him with a fist on his chest, punching him five times. Powe told police she begged Harper to stop hurting the boy, even grabbing Harper to stop, but he said, "Shut the [expletive] up and sit the [expletive] down or you'll be next."

Powe told police that Harper threw Kazerion back in the crib and wouldn't let her check on the boy, who wasn't making any noise. Police were called and officers observed red marks on the infant's chest and bruises around his neck.

The boy was pronounced dead at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. An autopsy reported numerous injuries, including bruises, blunt-force injuries, blood in the chest, one to three broken ribs, bruises under the chin consistent with being picked up by his neck, hemorrhaging consistent with blunt-force trauma and a separated liver.

Kazerion is at least the 57th child to die since 2005 in Minnesota from maltreatment despite the family being known to child protection, the Star Tribune has found.

Since January 2012, Harper was reported to child protection services several times in Minnesota and Michigan, records show.

Michigan officials filed a petition for the children to be removed in 2013 and Harper was formally charged for fourth-degree child abuse, but the charges were reportedly dropped due to their move back to Minnesota.

Following a report that Harper abused then 3-month-old Kazerion, a juvenile court judge ordered the children to be put in foster care in June 2013. The next month, Powe filed a restraining order against Harper to comply with child protection, records show. Harper "choked me unconscious when I tried to stop him from inflicting harm on our child," she wrote. "Our kids got took, and I am trying to get them back."

Records show that over the next several months, Powe complied with a case plan meant to show that she could keep her children safe if they were returned to her. Harper wasn't complying with a case plan, but because he was not a custodial parent, the court had no jurisdiction over him. Child protection services closed the case in April.

Powe still had a restraining order on Harper that didn't expire until July 2015, but police said he had been living with her the past three weeks. According to the county, she asked that the restraining order be dismissed, but dropped it Nov. 5 when the court said she would need a home visit and guardian ad litem.

"The mother had done everything social workers asked and, as required by law, she was reunited with her children," Freeman said in a prepared statement. "Unfortunately, despite an order of protection against him, she allowed her abusive boyfriend back into the house."

The surviving boy, who will turn 3 this month, won't be reunited with his mother yet.

Powe told police the older son witnessed Tuesday's deadly abuse and "froze." A friend who was called to pick him up noticed the boy had healing bruises on his back and threw up a brown liquid, according to Hennepin County's petition to remove Powe's parental rights. He was taken to North Memorial Medical Center, where he appeared "stunned, quiet and malnourished," with scabs, cuts, scars and injuries consistent with abuse over time.

According to the hospital, he was nonverbal, weak and unable to stand and hold weight. In a report Thursday, the hospital said that while the boy's injuries didn't "demonstrate gross evidence of trauma," he had inflicted abdominal trauma.

In a petition to terminate Powe's parental rights, the county said Harper abused the children many times but Powe minimized the abuse.

At Friday's hearing, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Mike Furnstahl said that the older boy saw his mother do nothing to prevent the abuse and experts need to determine if seeing his mother would be traumatic.

Judge Nancy Brasel ordered that the boy remain in protective custody, receive therapy and be appointed a guardian ad litem. She also ordered a "kinship study" to evaluate relatives, neighbors and other significant figures in the boy's life as possible future guardians. The next hearing is Dec. 23.

Powe, surrounded by family members, was very emotional, leaving the hearing in tears after a couple of minutes. Family members said she's grieving the death of her younger son and doesn't deserve to now also lose her older one.

"It's heartless," the boys' grandmother said of the county's petition. "It's too soon."

Kelly Smith • 612-673-4141