An Alabama mother charged with aggravated child abuse has temporarily lost the right to make medical decisions for her infant son as authorities say she is the reason he is on life support.

Prosecutors contend Tesean Laneta Daniele Beard, 30, has a vested interest in whether he lives or dies, despite what is the best course of action for him.

Her son, 10-month-old Reazyn Jackson, has been on a ventilator since March 1 when he was rushed to Children’s of Alabama unconscious and without a pulse.

Doctors have said his injuries are consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Court records state he has no chance of survival or neurological recovery.

Beard appeared before Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter Tuesday after Bessemer prosecutors filed a motion asking that Beard, who was the sole decision maker in Reazyn’s medical care, no longer be allowed to make those decisions.

Beard’s attorneys, Wakisha Hazzard, Maston Evans and Phillip Fikes, said no evidence has been presented to prove that Beard was responsible for Reazyn’s injuries and to strip her rights would wrong.

“It would be highly inappropriate in my opinion to enjoin (stop) Miss Beard from making a decision about her child because that would be essentially taking away her constitutional and fundament rights as a parent,” Hazzard said.

When the hearing ended, Carpenter did suspend Beard’s decision-making abilities for reason and appointed a guardian ad litem (GAL) to further investigate Reazyn’s case and report back to the judge in 30 days.

A GAL is a person, often an attorney, appointed by a court to represent the best interests of a child or incapacitated person in legal proceedings.

GALs act as fact finders, investigators, and advocates for their ward, ensuring their needs are considered by the court.

The judge said while Beard is presumed innocent, it is a fact that she is charged with aggravated child abuse.

“Whether she is responsible for these injuries to the child or not, she has a conflict of interest when it comes to making the decision to remove the child from life support,” Carpenter said.

“If the child dies, she could potentially be charged with capital murder and so long as the child is alive, she won’t be. This is a conflict of interest that exists.”

Currently, no one has been given the decision-making ability for Reazyn’s medical care.

Beard is a mother of four who lives in Midfield. On that Saturday, Reazyn was found unresponsive and her attorney said Beard first sought help from a neighbor who is a retired Birmingham police officer.

The neighbor performed CPR and 911 was called.

Reazyn was rushed to Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham, where he remains.

Charging documents against Beard state an MRI and an X-ray showed that Reazyn – who was 5-months-old at the time – suffered abuse. He had severe head trauma, wrist fractures on both sides and possible rib fractures.

He has remained on life support for more than four months.

Beard was arrested at her workplace on Wednesday, July 9, and booked into the Jefferson County Jail where she is held without bond.

The day after her arrest, Bessemer Cutoff Assistant District Attorney Lori Frasure filed a motion to remove Beard’s ability to make decisions on Reazyn’s behalf.

“It’s my understanding that at some point Miss Beard had wanted, or there was some talk about sending Reazyn to Texas,” Fasure said in Tuesday’s hearing.

“Of course, we would be adamantly opposed to this child being removed from Children’s.”

“It’s my understanding that the child is permanently on a ventilator,” Frasure said. “If the child is removed, the child will pass away,” she said.

“If the child is kept on a ventilator, there is a very high probability that the child will have a lung infection. and pass away from the lung infection.”

“Miss Beard is the one who caused the child to be in the hospital,” Frasure said.

“Miss Beard should not have medical authority of this child no matter what happens with this child.”

Defense attorney Hazzard said Reazyn suffered from respiratory issues and was first hospitalized in January with RSV – Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

When Reazyn was admitted to the hospital again – Hazzard said it was in February – it was noted there might have been some trauma to the head that they saw when they started running tests on the baby.

“Fast forward, and we come to June and there was a supplemental report done where they’re saying now they believe there may be child abuse that might have been involved,” Hazzard said.

“Initially, when Reazyn Jackson went into the hospital, there was no indication of any type of child abuse,” she said.

“There was an indication of respiratory issues that the child was having and some cardiac arrest due to these respiratory issues.”

When Reazyn was taken to Children’s the last time, he started having seizures, Hazzard said.

“After he developed those seizures, we believe, is when all these other things started happening to Reazyn Jackson, not necessarily because it was something that mom did,” she said.

“I hear what the state’s saying. The state is saying, ‘Oh, well, mom did this.’ We’re saying, Your Honor, that mom did not do this,” Hazzard said. “She took the proper precaution that she needed to take.”

“Now they’re saying we have child abuse,” she said.

“Make it make sense. It makes no sense that there was a four-month period where there was no child abuse preliminary indicated. Now four months later they’re saying there is child abuse.”

“We’re highly opposed to this court even giving a consideration to a motion to stop the mother from making decisions for her child when all she’s been trying to do is make the right decisions,” she said.

There is an ongoing case involving Beard in Family Court.

Hazzard said Beard has had supervised visits with Reazyn at the hospital. Her other three children are with Beard’s mother and their fathers.

Hazzard said under Beard’s decision making, Reazyn has shown some signs of improvement during his hospital stay.

He is conscious, she said, and has on occasion been moved out of the ICU.

“We can’t say, Your Honor, that this baby is on his death bed. Because we don’t even know that,” the mother’s attorney said.

“The baby got better and got out of ICU.”

“A DHR case worker has reached out to the maternal grandmother about taking classes and training on how to care for Reazyn during this time because they anticipated him getting out of the hospital,” Hazzard said.

“So, to take the baby off life support now would be premature.”

“We don’t want a third party to get in and make a decision to pull the plug when it’s premature,” Hazzard said.

“We don’t want to put the authority of a baby’s life in a third party’s hand that is not a biological parent.”

Fikes, another of Beard’s attorneys, agreed.

“I understand the court’s conflict with Tesean Beard, 100 percent,” he said.

“If the state on their own motion gets the mother’s authority suspended, and then something happens to the baby that requires the charges to be upgraded, and the state prosecutes Tesean Beard for something that happened on their own motion, it’s a conflict.”

“We just believe this is a very slippery slope,” Fikes said.

“This is new. We’re treading in new waters, and we think it’s a very slippery slope for the state of Alabama to embark on.”

“To make it clear, under no circumstances is this court going to order the child removed from life support no matter what,” the judge said. “That is not going to happen.”

Carpenter ordered the appointed GAL, who is an attorney with a medical background, to report back to the court in 30 days.

“She will do an independent investigation,” the prosecutor said. “She will not be persuaded by either side.”

“I believe she would do a fair and just job and represent the best interest of Reazyn because when it comes down to it, that’s all we want,” Frasure said.

“We want somebody to stand up for Reazyn.”

In the meantime, Beard will return to court Thursday for an Aniah’s Law bond hearing.