Northville Officer Describes Burns, Bruises at Child Abuse Hearing

Northville Township officer Christopher Cox was the second to testify at court Friday afternoon at a hearing for a Northville man charged with repeatedly hitting and burning a toddler with a lighter.

Dylan James Dunlap, 19, faces multiple charges, one of them being torture, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison. Dunlap was left in charge of the toddler with his girlfriend, the boy's aunt, May 5 and 6 at an apartment located on Northridge Drive in Northville Township.

The toddler's mother, Victoria Busch, spoke with police after seeing pictures of her son's injuries, which were sent to her via Dunlap's phone. Cox met her at her apartment building and together they went to the apartment building next door where Dunlap, her sister and her son were.

>> Watch video of Cox's testimony at 35th District Court above where he describes what he saw when he first walked in to the apartment.

"Mr. Dunlap said the dog played rough and caused these bruises," Cox said.

Cox said the dog, which he described as a white small husky, was in a crate when he arrived and appeared to be quiet. 

He said he called medics when he and Busch lifted Joshua's shirt and saw the large bruises on his back. They were taken to Providence Park Hospital in Novi and later transferred to University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. Cox described a few of the photos that he took at the hospital, which he said showed blisters, finger prints and bruises.

"You can see that the skin has been burned away," he said about one of the photos.

Robert Mullen, Dunlap's attorney, objected to some of the photographs saying they were cumulative and not probative, or offering any further proof. 

Plakas said Mullen and Fowler would have to agree on which photos could be used before continuing at the next hearing on Thursday at 35th District Court.