A hearing for 21-year-old Luke Tobia Sementelli was held in 53rd District Court in Howell Tuesday, at which time a judge determined there was enough evidence to send his case to trial. He was bound over to Livingston County Circuit Court on one count of 2nd degree child abuse and two counts of 3rd degree child abuse.

He was charged last month following an investigation by the Brighton City Police Department. The Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office previously stated that the charges arise from allegations that Sementelli physically assaulted a child in his care resulting in serious physical harm and also bit the child, resulting in injury. Brighton Police were contacted by Child Protective Services and advised of a possible child abuse case involving a one-year-old boy.

The incident allegedly occurred July 13th at an apartment in Brighton. Police have said the child was pushed down on the floor three times, causing him to strike his head, and then shaken feverishly by his mother’s live-in boyfriend. The child was on a ventilator with injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome and suffered from seizures. The mother, who is pregnant with Sementelli’s child, has not been charged.

Future court dates for Sementlli have not yet been scheduled. (DK/JM)