Polakoff Found Guilty

Nathan Polakoff is escorted out of the Carbon County courtroom after being found guilty of felony assault on a minor on July 20.

Nathan Polakoff of Red Lodge was found guilty on July 20, 2023, in Carbon County District Court of felony assault on a minor for head injuries that occurred on April 19, 2019, to a nine-month old child who lives in Billings. He will be sentenced at a later date. The State was represented by Selene Koepke and Stephanie Robles, Assistant Attorneys General, and Alex Nixon, Carbon County Attorney. The defendant was represented by Mark Parker and Michael Dunphy of Parker, Hertz & Cosgrove from Billings.

In March of 2022, Polakoff was found not guilty of inflicting injuries that occurred on or about April 17 of 2019. In the same trial, the jury was hung (unable to come to a unanimous decision) on the charged count involving injuries that occurred on April 19. The Montana Supreme Court ruled that Polakoff could be retried on the April 19 count without double jeopardy applying to the defendant. In pretrial documents, the prosecution stated that they planned to steer clear of the events prior to April 19 to avoid any double jeopardy issues. The State’s opening statement only referred to events on April 19. In a twist, counsel for the defense opened by pointing to events on the 17th as the most likely explanation for the sudden loss of the child’s breathing and right side paralysis. This “opened the door” for the prosecution to explore the events of the 17th and 18th, but they remained largely focused on the events of the 19th.

Content Caution: The following contains descriptions of violence and injury to a child and is not for everyone.

According to trial testimony, the 19-year old mother of the nine-month old victim had been dating 22-year old Polakoff for a couple months when the pair went to visit Polakoff at his Red Lodge home for their first extended visit on April 17. In the first trial, the initial skull injury to the child was alleged to have occurred on April 17. That injury was a complex fracture (a fracture with more than one linear break) on the left parietal bone (the side of the skull above the ear). One of the fractures crossed over the suture (the place where the skull bones meet and eventually fuse). One piece of skull was depressed while the other was raised. It was testified by medical experts that a great deal of force would be needed to cause a fracture that crosses unfused sutures.

On April 18, Polakoff and the mother took the child to Beartooth Billings Clinic because the child was fussy and vomiting. Although there was a bump on the left side of the child’s head, Polakoff’s explanation that the child had fallen off a low futon and other symptoms led the provider to diagnose a stomach virus and the three went back to Polakoff’s home. On the following day, the child continued to show symptoms and vomited on the mother while the three were dining out. They returned to Polakoff’s home where he offered to shower the child while the mother cleaned herself up. Shortly thereafter, Polakoff came back into the room holding the unconscious child.

Despite being a trained EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), Polakoff did not initially provide CPR or other emergency interventions, but instead handed the child to the mother who provided rescue breaths and chest compressions as she had seen the procedures performed on the television show, Gray’s Anatomy, while he called 911 at the mother’s insistence. Red Lodge Police Department was first on the scene followed shortly thereafter by emergency medical personnel who transported the child to Beartooth Billings Clinic. As part of the diagnostic process a CAT scan of the child’s head was taken and sent to an off-site radiologist for review. For the first time in the 20+ year medical career of the treating physician, they received a call from the radiologist stating the radiologist was reporting the injury to Child Protective Services and suggested the physician do the same.

Medical testimony from the prosecution witnesses described two injuries. One was the complex fracture on the left side of the child’s head, which the prosecution claimed in the earlier trial occurred on April 17. The other was described as much more severe and was a stellate fracture located on the occipital bone (back of the skull) with a depression at the point the fractures radiated from. Stellate fractures present similarly to a rock hitting a windshield on the freeway causing an injury with a clear point of impact with fractures radiating outward. Both injuries were described as serious and the result of a high velocity impact, but the stellate fracture as described by prosecution medical witnesses would have produced profound and immediate effects, such as loss of consciousness.

The defense provided just one witness in this case, Dr. Joseph Scheller, a pediatric neurologist from Maryland. Dr. Scheller testified that in reviewing the medical records he found the injuries “unimpressive” and not necessarily “serious”. Basing his testimony on a 1985 study by W Weber wherein infant cadavers were dropped on their heads from just over 32 inches onto different surfaces, he declared that even a fall from the futon could cause skull fractures. His theory is that the two fractures were caused by one event of the child being dropped on the top of their head causing the fractures on the side and back of the head when the skull basically exploded. In rebuttal, the State put on one medical doctor who stated Scheller’s theory was not a possibility.

The jury was out for just over three hours before returning to the courtroom with a verdict of guilty. Polakoff’s sentencing is tentatively scheduled for the beginning of October. Polakoff and his counsel have not yet determined an appeal strategy.