By Mary Sparacello
Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — The Metairie woman who is accused of leaving her newborn to die in Lake Pontchartrain was beaten unconscious by another inmate in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center last week, her attorney said Monday.
Ciara Craig, 21, was hospitalized and received six stitches to her forehead after an inmate kicked her on Friday, Morris Reed said. Craig has returned to the Gretna jail and is being held in its medical unit, Reed said.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Col. John Fortunato, had no immediate comment on the report.
Craig, charged with second-degree murder, is being held under $500,000 bond. Authorities said she gave birth in her home Feb. 10 to a girl, then drove to Kenner’s Laketown park and placed the baby in the water.
Reed said Craig was in a common area of the jail when an inmate knocked her to the floor, causing her to hit her head, Reed said. While Craig was on the floor, she was repeatedly kicked in the head and stomach, he said.
Reed said the beating will bolster his argument that Craig’s bond should be reduced. He said he will ask Judge Robert Pitre of the 24th Judicial District Court for an earlier hearing -- one is now scheduled July 10 -- to release his client to home incarceration.
“We’re concerned with her possible exposure because of the nature of the charge,” Reed said. “She’s not a flight risk, and she certainly doesn’t pose a risk to anyone else in the community.”
He said he doesn’t know whether anyone had arrested or disciplined in connection with Craig’s injuries.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company