FREDERICK, Md. — Child welfare advocates are questioning a decision made by a Maryland Circuit Court judge after a man serving home detention for a fatal child abuse case has been accused of abusing another child.
Former police officer and convicted child abuser, Jason Michael Colley, 43, of Monrovia, was arrested this week by Maryland State Police in Frederick County and accused of harming his 3-year-old daughter.
Colley was living with the girl and his wife despite being convicted in a previous case of child abuse that left another daughter dead in 2017.
This time Colley is accused of hurting his 3-year-old daughter, born in 2020, while his previous case was still being contested.
In charging documents, Maryland State Police say a child care provider reported bruises on the little girl’s arms Tuesday.
The child told a social services investigator “dad gets mad” and “daddy bit my arm”, investigators wrote.
Colley’s wife denied the claim. “No one in this house grabbed her or bit her,” she told investigators.
According to court documents, investigators noted that Colley is currently on house arrest serving 8 years of a 25 year suspended sentence for assaults that resulted in the death of Colley's daughter, Harper Grace Colley.
The child died in 2017 at the age of three after suffering head trauma while Colley was the only adult with access to her, according to court documents in the previous case.
Colley was sentenced in August of 2022 by Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Julia Martz-Fisher after he made an Alford plea and avoided a trial in that case.
The plea is not an admission of guilt, but does acknowledge prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.
Martz-Fisher has not responded to WUSA9’s request for comment.
The case has at least one child advocate raising questions about the sentencing decision.
“Many times in my practice I do see biological parents that are allowed to maintain custody of their children in spite of the most questionable and seemingly unsafe situations," said Matila Jones of the Maryland Family Tree, a nonprofit that aims to prevent child abuse by supporting struggling families.
"There have been quite a few times where I’ve seen the outcome of that only ends up being children put into further danger," Jones said.
Colley is a former Fairfax County police officer who was fired after the indictment for the death of his daughter in 2017.
On Thursday, another judge ordered Colley be held in the Frederick County jail without bail on the latest charges.
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