A 26-year-old woman who police say abused her 11-month-old daughter and then lied to law enforcement that she had cancer pleaded guilty last week.
Ashley Reichard of Bristol Township made the plea on charges of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, perjury and unsworn falsification to law enforcement last week before a judge in Doylestown. Her sentencing in the case has been deferred for 60 days.
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Bristol Township police began investigating Reichard last year after the the 11-month-old’s grandmother suspected child abuse.
When questioned, Reichard noted her child acting odd and “crying in a weird way,” she insisted her daughter had been in the care of her father when the incident occurred. Reichard even told officers over the next few days that the child was eating food, despite not being able to open her mouth, and going to the park, despite her traumatic injuries.
Phone records obtained by investigators noted that Reichard also lied to them about when she called to take the child to the pediatrician, noting the office waited a day to call her back.
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Police later served Reichard, also the mother to a 4-year-old boy, with legal papers in January after completing their investigation and determining the child’s father was not involved.
Police say when Reichard was served she reported to be suffering from stage 2 ovarian cancer. Officers noted Reichard had a shaved head and no eyebrows, which she contributed to chemo therapy. While Reichard provided Bucks County Probation and Parole Officer Rich Snyder with documents from the “Oncology team @ Fox Chase Cancer Center,” the documents contained no printed names of the signers and had several typographical errors, court papers say. Medical records from the Fox Chase Cancer Center and another medical facility were subpoenaed and proved Reichard was indeed never a patient.
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Police recorded in court documents that Reichard faked cancer and lied “in an attempt to gain sympathy for herself, while falsely accusing another of inflicting trauma to her daughter.”
According to court papers, the 11-month-old received traumatic injuries, including perforated ear drum, two burns on her lower body, bruises, skull fractures, a broken jaw and even a broken femur.
