<p>Man sentenced to prison for the physical and sexual assault of his two young children</p>

Defendant Albert Meredith, 27 years old of Cazadero, was sentenced today by the Honorable Mark Urioste to serve 14 years and 8 months in state prison after pleading no contest in May to charges of physically abusing his newborn daughter, and sexually molesting the baby’s 4-year-old half-sister.

District Attorney Jill Ravitch stated, “This defendant unquestionably deserves the lengthy prison sentence imposed by the court this afternoon. Instead of protecting and nurturing his two young children, this man inflicted terrible violence on them. Fortunately, a family member reported the abuse, and as a result the children are now living with loving adoptive families.”

The physical abuse of the 10-week-old infant was reported to child protective services in August 2019 by her uncle who lived in the home at the time. Subsequently, the mother brought the infant to a local hospital, where doctors realized the baby had 11 fractured ribs in various stages of healing. Further examination at Oakland Children’s Hospital led to the discovery of healed fractures to the child’s upper arm and lower leg, and a torn frenulum. A follow-up police investigation noted that Meredith had bitten the child on at least 2 prior occasions.

During a forensic interview, the 4-year-old victim not only confirmed that the defendant had physically assaulted her sister, but disclosed that she herself had been sexually assaulted by him on multiple occasions. Meredith was later interviewed by a child welfare investigator and admitted to having inflicted all of the injuries because he felt “overwhelmed.”  He also admitted that he had molested the 4-year old. He ultimately pled no contest to two felony counts of physical abuse of a child with great bodily injury, and one count of forcible lewd acts against a child. In addition to the prison sentence, the defendant will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

During the sentencing hearing the court noted that, “The facts and circumstances of this case are truly monstrous. I have never seen such extreme conduct, nor can I think of a case where I have seen a victim this young.”

The case was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Anne C Masterson, assisted by District Attorney Investigator Dave Linscomb, and District Attorney Victim Advocate Millie Ito.  Detective Mike Sealock of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department’s Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault team headed the investigation.