Law&Crime Sidebar - SATURDAY Little Boy's Concerning Injures Spotted on Facetime: 'A Knuckle Imprint'

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Aleesha Allen is facing a felony child abuse charge after her son was seen with injuries to his face. Her friend, Isaiah Polk, was on a Facetime call with Allen when he allegedly saw a “knuckle imprint” on the boy’s face. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber spoke with Polk about his decision to call the police.Binge all episodes of SCAM FACTORY early and ad-free on Wondery+ by clicking our link https://Wondery.fm/LC-ScamFactoryHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A California mother is out on bail accused of physically abusing her 11-month-old baby. We'll get into the legal logistics of that in a minute, but it was actually the woman's friend who called the police report the possible abuse, and I had a chance to sit down and interview that friend, talk about why he felt compelled to call 911 and what things have been like since. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. 22-year-old Alicia Ann Allen was arrested a little more than a week ago, accused of abusing

her very young child, allegedly leaving bruises on this. child's face. This is according to Shasta County, California deputies. Now, I know what you might be thinking. Another horrifying case of alleged child abuse. Yes, although this one is a little bit different. I'm going to explain why. So the deputies went to this home on Sunday, March 2nd, and this was after a man named Isaiah Polk called 911 to report possible child abuse. I mean, how many times do we cover cases where we say, see something, say something, how many times people might not get involved. Now, I know these are allegations, but at the same time, you are having a bystander coming in and alerting authorities to potential child abuse.

This is huge. And we're going to talk about him. And we're going to have an opportunity to speak with Isaiah in just a little bit. But when authorities got to Allen's Shasta Lake home, they say that she was putting this 11-month-old into a car. Where she may have been going is unclear. But at that point, I'll tell you where she was headed. She was headed straight to jail. A news release says that, quote, deputies observe the juvenile and noticed facial injuries that appeared to be deliberately inflicted and consistent with child abuse. So emergency personnel, they took the child to the hospital to get the injuries checked out. Shasta County Children and Family Services got involved, put the baby in the care of family members. And Ms. Allen was booked into the Shasta County Jail and one charge of child abuse with possible great bodily injury.

or death, a felony, what we believe to be the corresponding law and the California Penal Code reads, any person who under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death willfully causes or permits any child to suffer or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering or having the care or custody of any child, willfully causes or permits the person or health of that child to be injured, or willfully causes or permits that child to be placed in a situation where his or her person or health is endangered. shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or in the state prison for two, four, or six years. Now, the criminal code also goes on to recommend what kind of

probation would need to be put in place for someone convicted of child abuse, and it says a mandatory minimum period of probation of 48 months, a criminal court protective order protecting the victim from further acts of violence or threats, and if appropriate, residence exclusion or stay-away conditions, successful completion of no less than one year of a child abuser's treatment counseling program approved by the probation department. The terms of probation for offenders shall not be lifted until all reasonable fees due to the counseling program have been paid in full. If the offense was committed while the defendant was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the defendant shall abstain from the use of drugs or alcohol during the period

of probation and shall be subject to random drug testing by his or her probation officer. Now, also, the Criminal Code notes that the minimum conditions of probation, those can be waived by the judge during sentencing. So there's a bit of discretion here. Now, I will tell you this. At first, Alan had no bail. She had no bail until she could see a judge. But she appeared for an arraignment on Wednesday, and the judge actually released her on her own recognizance, meaning she would have to meet certain conditions, but she wouldn't have to put up any money or property to secure her release. Those conditions are that she can't consume alcohol. She can't contact the child in any way. She has to wear a GPS monitor. And of course, she has to show up for her next court date,

which is set for April 8th. But here's the thing. That decision was very controversial. Many in the community were upset about the decision to release this woman who has now been charged with abusing her child. There is even a change.org petition for the DA, the district attorney, to reconsider her bail recommendation, which has more than 2,000 signatures, but Stephanie Bridget, who is the district attorney for Shasta County, spoke with KRCR to explain Allen's release, kind of set the record a little straight here, quote, at arraignment, when bail is being addressed,

both sides are going to make arguments. Defense is going to make arguments. Prosecution will typically make an argument, but ultimately, it's not the decision of the defense attorney. It's not the decision of my office or me. It's ultimately the decisions of whatever judge the case is in front of. So as we continue to monitor the legal aspect of this case, now I want to turn to Isaiah Polk, who I mentioned before, the friend who was on that call with Alan when he apparently

noticed the injuries on this child and called 911. I had a chance to sit down with him. I had a chance to hear his point of view. I had a chance to hear what he observed, what he saw. Take a listen. All right. So, Isaiah, thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate you taking the time. It's also a three-hour time difference. So you woke up early to do this. Really appreciate it. I want to start up. What is your relationship with Alan? If you could start there.

So we were just mutual friends. Back then, we did. We were together for a little while. Okay, so you've kept up the relationship with her. And can you walk us through the circumstances surrounding that call? Did you call her? Did she call you? What happened on the call in question? What had this how this all unfold? Okay, so the night before We were we were together. We went to the casino went bowling We were hanging out That night of she started arguing with her dad and she had FaceTime called me and was like hey Could you come get me because me my dad were going through it? What not and there's some things that was said that she said her dad said about her kids uh i met the guy a few

times he's around like maybe in the 60s 70s he's an old guy real nice and uh never never seen him like do anything crazy say anything crazy to her kids nothing like that so i just try to tell her like hey i know you guys are you and just go back to your room go to sleep like everything will be fine so the next morning she facetime called me and she was crying but like there weren't tears coming down like it just seemed like she was fake crying my hey so what's going on and she was like my dad told me last night that my son had fell off to bed he had a little bruise on his face but uh look at his face now and then she pointed the camera at him i'm like mm i was like that's not a fall off the bed. So I screenshot it and that's when I had called the authorities.

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So follow Scam Factory on the Wondery app wherever you get your podcast. You can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus or by going to our link in the description and pinned in the comments. When you said it didn't look like fall off the bed, what was it about the way this child's face looked that you knew something was off? You can tell there was a knuckle imprint right here. There's a knuckle imprint.

This side of the cheek was bruised. Both sides was bruised. And then over here, it looked like nail marks and the baby's head. And did you ask her about that? that you confront her about that yeah so i did uh i was like well if you think it's your dad if you think your dad did that to your baby call the cops i was like call the cops your baby needs to go to the hospital and she just kept saying no she was like no no the thing is uh my dad's names

on the rent so if uh i call the cops i'm going to end up getting kicked out i was like that's not that shouldn't be your first thought right now the first thought should be calling the cops getting your baby to the hospital like asap and uh she just she wasn't listening you know what's interesting when i was reading the story i thought that you would have just observed the child like in the background but the fact that she you know brought the child to show you look what what look look look how he looks like he looks i think that's so interesting and uh the again trying to say it was off because of the bed yeah i think she wanted me to believe that her dad did that because she was all like, oh, yeah, look what my dad did.

So I'm thinking like she probably wants me to believe that. But I'm smarter than the average person. I know her dad wouldn't do that. No, look, it's amazing you called 911. Have you ever seen any evidence of neglect or abuse in the past from her? No. Like I said, I wasn't around her and her kids when they were together. like anytime me and her hung out she either came over to my house or we went out and her dad

would always watch the kids did she ever talk about her kids like what you know or did she ever talk about being a mom anything like that uh yeah i mean so like i've i've known alicia for like seven years and when i first met alicia she didn't have any kids um so like we would talk about like how parenting is and i told her like down the road i would want kids and she just told me like it's stressful like you got to make sure like you're in the right mindset and and make sure that you have money saved up because it's a stressful thing but i mean that's really it like we she never really brought up her kids like that to me never complained like other than obviously saying stressful but never said like complained or anything like that.

Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Have you ever seen her be violent with anybody in the past? What was the 911 phone call like? Well, they had me on the phone forever. I was all like, well, no, you gotta get there. You gotta get there right now. Like, uh, you're like, what's your name, this and that?

Basically saying why I believed that her kid was in harm and I told him. like i mean you'll you'll see when you get there like the baby's faces yeah this story obviously blew up from that right so particularly your role in it what has that been like for you crazy i did not expect that at all uh getting hundreds of text messages a day uh the news they wanted to interview me it was it was crazy i did not expect that at all but i mean look you're being held as a hero because you jumped in when these kinds of cases a lot of people might see things and they don't do anything.

They just look the other way or they ignore or they, you know, the fact that you took the initiative to call 9-1 is incredible. And now you're seeing the legal case against your friend being played out. What's that like for you to see this? Man,

it's crazy to think about because I feel like if it was like I don't know if it was like I'm trying to put it in like the best way possible I feel like if it was a male by chance if that was to happen and it was a guy they would not be out right now so I just it's crazy to like think about uh it's crazy to think about she's out like I did not think you disagree with it you disagree with it yeah 100% 100% yeah 100% I don't I don't I don't I don't agree with that. Because they, obviously, the prosecutor came out, said there's only so much they can do.

It's the court's decision. Has she tried to reach out to you in any which way or no? Yeah. She has. Yeah, she contacted. Yeah. But let me ask you this. I mean, was she angry at you that you called 911?

No. She was all like, you did the right thing. That's what I needed, blah, blah, blah, this and that. Yeah, she was mad. But, oh, but that's interesting because she said this is what I needed, almost suggesting I did do this. Yeah, no, she's, she's admitted it. She's admitted it. Yeah.

Interesting. And that's what I told her. I was all like, that's why I was like, I don't want nothing to do with you. I don't want to talk to you. Like, it's just mind-blown disbelief because all the years I'm known here, I just, I couldn't see her doing anything like that. Did she feel bad? Didn't seem like it. Have prosecutors indicated contact you, what role you might play in this case, if it actually does progress?

Nobody's reached out? I haven't contacted me, no. I'm sorry you had to see that. It's a very difficult thing to see. And again, I applaud you for taking the action to call 911 and get the ball rolling on this. Not easy to do. And obviously, all the attention you're receiving right now, probably surreal, maybe not the easiest thing, right? Are you hoping for all this to die down a little bit?

Yeah, eventually I'll be able to hopefully go back to work and get my mindset right. Yeah. All right, well, listen, Isaiah, I don't want to take any more of your time. It's also early there. Hopefully you can maybe go back to sleep for a little bit. But listen, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And great work, I mean, really.

It's, you should be held as a hero for what you did. So, again, thanks for taking the time. And thank you for what you did. Thank you. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.