(NECN: Lauren Collins, Brentwood, N.H.) - Prosecutors say they have a video that shows Jessica Linscott and Roland Dow coaching the little boy before a social worker arrives at their house, "about whether he gets nosebleeds and what the answer to that would be, whether he gets spankings and what the answer to that would be," said Assistant Rockingham County Attorney Michael Zaino.
Linscott is charged with misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child, but she could face felony charges with the state pursuing a witness tampering case. She asked a judge Wednesday to let her contact her son, something she hasn't been allowed to do since her November arrest.
"Jessica is in a much different place now," said public defender Deanna Campbell. "She's taking parenting classes, she's been working with a domestic violence counselor, she's been working crisis management. She's 100 percent invested in turning her life around."
Linscott's now ex-boyfriend is jailed on charges he beat and burned the toddler. The couple took off after bringing him to the hospital and was arrested nearly two weeks later at Universal Studios in Florida.
But Campbell says Linscott tried to do what was right by her son - staying with him even after doctors determined he'd been abused and voluntarily signing custody over to her mother - and that she too was a victim.
"When Jessica was picked up in Florida, she had a black eye," Campbell told the judge, saying that the 23 year old suffered "classic" battered woman’s syndrome.
The judge reluctantly agreed to let Linscott write - but not call - her son, provided the boy's therapist reads him the letters and the state gets a copy.
Deputy Rockingham County Attorney Tom Reid was not pleased.
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"There should be no contact at all rather than putting us in the position where we have to evaluate whether one letter or one contact did influence the child," he said.
Dow's trial is set to begin next month, Linscott's in June. New charges could change that schedule.
