A Shelby man has been released from jail and pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of child endangerment causing injury. According to Audubon County District Court records, 21-year-old Lane Joseph Bregar was taken into custody following a report from the Audubon County Memorial Hospital on Sept. 5 of three children with significant injuries. An officer for the Audubon Police Department observed bruising on the ears and scalp of the two-year-old twins and a fractured humerus and tibia, along with bruising all over an eight-month-old infant. The mother of the children informed the officer that she left her children in the care of Bregar while she went to the store. The officer reports that Bregar says one of the children got his head stuck between a couch and while trying to assist, one of the other children frustrated Bregar and caused him to hit the child “harder than he should have”. The officer also observed that Bregar’s knuckles were irritated, bruised, and red. Bregar is currently being charged with two counts of child endangerment causing bodily injury, a class D felony and one count child endangerment causing serious injury, a class C felony. Combined charges carry a maximum sentence of up to twenty years in prison and $34,150 in fines.
