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Trial Under Way in Boy’s Scalding Case

By Beacon Staff

A trial is under way in the case of a Whitefish man charged with scalding a 5-year-old boy in a tub of hot water.

Juan Miguel Vasquez is charged with aggravated assault, criminal endangerment and assault on a minor. Prosecutors say he forced his girlfriend’s son into a bathtub full of scalding water in October 2008, severely burning the boy.

Prosecuting attorney Travis Ahner told jurors that the boy will be scarred for life and that Vasquez has told three different versions of the events.

Defense attorney Noel Larrivee told jurors Thursday that the boy was standing in the tub as it was filling, he turned up the water temperature too high, slipped as he pulled away from the hot water and hit his head, making it impossible for him to get out of the tub.

The boy suffered second- and third-degree burns to more than 40 percent of his body