Lake County Prosecutors filed Wednesday to temporarily drop charges against a Gary man charged in his 1-month-old daughter’s death.
Gerard D. Coger, 22, of Gary, was charged in December with several felonies, including murder and aggravated battery.
The girl, Royal Coger died Dec. 18 in a Chicago hospital. Doctors said she had signs of head trauma and was likely shaken.
Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Dafoe wrote in filings that the Indiana Department of Child Services needed to finish its investigation. The case is dismissed without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled later.
The case against the girl’s mom, Janaya Hobson, 19, is still going, her lawyer John Cantrell said Thursday. Her next court date is July 9.
Both Coger and Hobson are charged with two felony counts of Level 1 neglect of a dependent resulting in death; two counts of Level 3 neglect of a dependent resulting in serious injury; two counts of Level 5 neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury; and two counts of Level 6 neglect of a dependent.
Police started investigating after the baby’s death on Dec. 18, when a caseworker with the Indiana Department of Child Services reported that medical staff indicated Royal “appeared to have been suffering from abusive head trauma,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
When a doctor approached Coger and Hobson to tell them Royal’s prognosis was grave, the doctor said the couple, who smelled of marijuana, stared “like a deer in headlights” when she told them someone shook their baby, the case worker’s report said.
The caseworker also reported that Coger and Hobson said they were told to feed Royal — who was born prematurely Nov. 12 and with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in her system — every three to four hours before they brought her to Methodist Hospital’s Northlake campus Dec. 15, court records said she wrote in her report, but that Royal was sleeping a lot between Dec. 13 and the time they brought her to the hospital.
The doctor, according to the DCS case worker’s report in court records, noted that Coger “did most of the talking and that Janaya Hobson appeared ‘flat,’ that neither were angry, and that both admitted to using marijuana generally.” Both denied shaking Royal, court records said, though both said they were the only two who watched her.
Lawyer Gojko Kasich represented Coger. The case is before Judge Samuel Cappas.
Michelle Quinn contributed.
