Man charged in beating
Charges against a West Brownsville man accused of beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son were held for court Monday.
A preliminary hearing was held for Benjamin G. Lesczynski, 26, of 501 Main St., before District Judge Joshua Kanalis in West Pike Run Township.
Lesczynski remains in Washington County Jail on bond, which was initially set at $100,000 but has been raised to $1 million at the request of the prosecution, according to court records.
State police filed charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, child endangerment and reckless endangerment Nov. 21, two days after Zachary Sumey, the alleged victim, was taken from Lesczynski’s home to a Pittsburgh hospital with a life-threatening head injury.
The boy’s mother, Brittany Sumey, initially told investigators she’d been playing with Zachary in the living room when Lesczynski came back inside from getting his cigarettes, found the boy unresponsive and called 911.
She later reportedly told police her boyfriend had told her they needed to get their stories straight.
In the second version of events she told investigators, Lesczynski allegedly was downstairs with the boy and other children while Sumey was upstairs. He allegedly came upstairs and told her Zachary was unconscious. She said she found her son on the dining room floor with vomit and blood coming from his mouth, and Lesczynski called 911 while she treated the boy.
Along with “extensive” head injuries, police reported Zachary suffered a “substantial amount of bruising to the head and upper torso area,” a trooper wrote in an affidavit of probable cause supporting the charges.