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CRYSTAL FALLS -- The Michigan Court of Appeals has turned away a man's challenge to Iron County charges that in March 2025 accused him of sexually abusing twin infants.
Tyler Cotton, 33, then of Gaastra, had argued he should not have been bound over for trial on two counts of criminal sexual conduct-first degree because no evidence was presented his acts "had a sexual purpose." He further contended he had been medically treating the infants.
CSC-1 is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a minimum penalty of 25 years if convicted.
According to the appeals court background, citing information from the Iron County preliminary examination hearing, Cotton was watching the infants in late March 2025 while their mother was out of town. Police were called in when the mother reported finding a bloody sanitary wipe in one infant's rectum; an investigation turned up bloody diapers and wipes. In addition, one infant had head bruising and showed symptoms of blood in his brain, "resulting in seizures and requiring drainage."
Cotton has been charged with the two counts of criminal sexual conduct-first degree, or CSC-1, with a person under age 13 and the defendant age 17 or older; as well as a single count of first-degree child abuse.
A nurse practitioner who treated the infants testified at the preliminary hearing both had severe anal and rectal injuries consistent with blunt-force penetrative trauma by a finger or similar object, the appeals court decision states.
The nurse practitioner said Cotton claimed he had been trying to treat the infants' constipation by inserting wipes into their rectums, adding the explanation was "inconsistent with their injuries and medical history."
The appeals court ruling, released Friday, focused on Cotton's arguments prosecutors did not present evidence of sexual purpose, which he maintained was necessary to rise to the level of CSC-1, and the decision to bind him over for trial did not properly consider the penetration was for medical purposes.
But the court stated in its opinion the CSC-1 definition of sexual penetration includes "any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a person's body or of any object into the genital or anal openings of another person’s body." The court added it "is immediately clear that a sexual purpose is not found among the definition's text or context."
On the second challenge, while the appeals court found the statute does not "criminalize the act of a parent who provides bona fide, age-appropriate medical treatment or hygienic care to his or her child," the nurse practitioner's testimony about the infants' injuries was enough at the preliminary hearing stage to proceed to trial, where it might raised again.
"We leave it to the sound discretion of the trial court whether the jury should be instructed on any bona fide medical treatment or hygienic care that can be provided by a parent to his child," the appeals court stated in its decision.
Cotton has a pretrial conference set for 8:15 a.m. Sept. 8 in Iron County Trial Court before Judge Donald S. Powell.
Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.