Michael Ormond (Winnebago County Jail)
A 39-year-old firefighter in Wisconsin was arrested this week after he allegedly admitted to repeatedly physically abusing his newborn son, telling police he felt something akin to a “runner’s high” when hurting the infant.
Michael Ormond was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count of child abuse — intentionally causing great bodily harm and one count of child abuse — intentionally causing harm, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
According to a report from Green Bay, Wisconsin, ABC affiliate WBAY-TV, officers with the Oshkosh Police Department responded on Sept. 7 to a call from administrators at a local hospital in Neenah regarding a 2-month-old baby with a series of suspicious injuries, including bruising from head to toe and bleeding in the brain. Due to the severity of the child’s injuries, he was airlifted to Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee for more specialized treatment.
Doctors said the infant — whose name is not included in the report — had been born premature and spent the first 47 days of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before being released nine days earlier.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Green Bay, Fox affiliate WLUK-TV, a nurse noted the child had bruising on the left side of his face near his upper jawbone and below his left ear.
“His left arm had bruises from the inside of his armpit all the way up to his wrist. On his right calf, there were red marks that the nurses also believed to be bruises,” the affidavit states. “Inside his left thigh, coming down to the inside of his knee were three bruises. The left hip, extending all the way across his buttocks, was completely blue and yellow from bruising, and that extended past the small of [the victim’s] back.”
Medical reports said the victim suffered a subdural hematoma, bruising on both sides of his face and eyelids, as well as his chest, scrotum, back, buttocks, and legs.
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“The entire retina had hemorrhages too numerous to count, which is a pattern consistent with abusive head trauma, police wrote. The victim also reportedly had blood in his spine from his second vertebrae down to his lower lumbar.
In an interview with Ormond, police said he admitted that he had been thinking about — and acting on — thoughts of physically harming his son since the day he and his wife brought the boy home from the NICU.
“[Ormond] reported that after [the victim] came home from the NICU, he would hurt [the victim] when he was alone with him,” police wrote. “[Ormond] reported that it started the day after [the victim] was brought home from the NICU with pinching [the victim’s] toes when he was crying. It ultimately led to squeezing [the victim] legs, arms, neck and face.”
When asked why he felt compelled to harm his newborn son, Ormond allegedly said that the child’s crying “triggers him.”
“[Ormond] reported that when he hurts [the victim], he gets something like a ‘runner’s high,”” the affidavit states.
Ormond also allegedly told police that he similarly abused his two daughters when they were infants, but reportedly claimed that he “only has issues with them being 0-9 months,” police said.
Appearing in court on Tuesday, a judge set Ormond’s bond at $500,000 cash and ordered him to have no contact with his wife, children, or any minors should he be released. He is scheduled to appear in court again on Sept. 21.
The Oshkosh Fire Department, where Ormond was employed as a firefighter, said he was no longer working for the department as of Sept. 11, 2023.
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